


Omnes una manet nox-The same night awaits us all.

by steeleye



Series: Back in the SPQR. [6]
Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Genre: BtVS cross over fic., Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-25
Updated: 2014-06-12
Packaged: 2018-01-26 11:48:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 18
Words: 63,168
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1687205
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/steeleye/pseuds/steeleye
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Final 'Back in the SPQR story.<br/>Buffy the Vampire Slayer crossover with the film ‘Up Pompeii’: Having been rescued by the famous Lady Fidelia, Buffy is now working on the Pompeii Porta-Hades in the care of Ammonia Sextus. However, an evil plot to murder the First Citizen upsets the tranquillity of Buffy’s new life.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

1.

**Omnes una manet nox.**

_* The same night awaits us all.* ___

By Steeleye.

Disclaimer: I do not own Buffy the Vampire Slayer, or the movie ‘Up Pompeii’ or anything else. I write these stories for fun not profit.

Crossover: Up Pompeii. 

Spelling, Punctuation, and Grammar; Written in glorious English-English which is different to American-English.

Timeline: Set after the events depicted in my fic, ‘Romani ite domum’.

Words: Lots.

Warnings: As this story is set in Pompeii which was known as a den of sex and depravity even in Roman times, there’ll be some gratuitous sex and violence and possibly some harsh language too!

Summary: ‘Up Pompeii’ xover: Having been rescued by the famous Lady Fidelia, Buffy is working on the Pompeii Porta-Hades in the care of Ammonia Sextus. However, an evil plot to murder the First Citizen upsets the tranquillity of Buffy’s new life.

0=0=0=0

**BOOK FIVE.**

**Omnes una manet nox. ******

_* The same night awaits us all.* ___

**The Prologue.**

**The Amphitheatre, Pompeii.**

Sitting alone in the dark, dusty vestibule behind the Gate of Life, Buffy played with her sword, idly tossing it up into the air before catching it again. The sword blade flashed as it passed through the shafts of sunlight that poked like golden rods through the cracks and knotholes of the wooden gate that led out onto the arena sand. Catching her sword deftly by the hilt she listened to the ironic jeers and laughter of the crowd as something happened out on the arena’s fighting area.

Getting up from the stone bench where she’d been sitting, Buffy walked the two or three paces over to the gate and put her eye to a crack between two planks. Laughing quietly to herself she shook her head at the antics of the clowns who were at present entertaining the crowd. Somehow the arena slaves had managed to herd the clowns into a tight mass in the middle of the arena. The clowns hacked frantically at each other with their swords; being effectively blind (the helmets they wore had no eyeholes) half their blows missed their intended targets by a mile. However, every so often a wounded clown would stumble from the melee clutching a bloody wound and fall to the ground.

As soon as a clown fell, two or three arena slaves would pounce on him. One would pull the clown’s helmet off while a second held him down. Once the clown’s head was exposed a third slave would hit him smartly on the back of the head with a mallet killing him instantly. Shrugging her shoulders as the clowns continued their frantic attempts at survival; Buffy went and sat down again. No doubt they’d been told that the last man standing would go free. In truth he’d be killed like all the others, but it guaranteed a good frantic fight and that’s what the mob liked.

Sighing, Buffy rested her head against the wall behind her and waited for her turn to go out and kill. Had it really been only two months since she’d been forced to kill her lover? On that fateful day, Marcus Licinius Crassus (may he rot in Hades) took her away from the Batiatus School of Gladiators, the place Buffy’d come to think of as home in the year or so since she’d arrived in the world of the past. 

Later she’d heard that just after being taken from the school, the gladiators had risen in rebellion and escaped. Buffy would have liked to think that it was because of what had happened to her, but she was fairly sure that Spartacus had already worked out his plan. He was just using the bad feeling caused by her being forced to kill her lover to goad the other gladiators into rebellion; she was just another useful tool as far as he was concerned.

Poor Caius, Buffy wouldn’t cry for her lover’s death, not until she was free, only then would she cry for the man she’d loved. Even when she relived the moment she’d rammed her dagger into his neck and felt his hot blood ooze over her hand and body, she never shed one tear. He’d begged her to kill him, if she hadn’t they’d both be dead now, a fact that didn’t really make her feel any better about killing him. After murdering the man she’d grown to love the soldiers had dragged her away and put her in a cage on the back of a cart. As if in a dream she remembered staring through the bars as the cart lurched along the road taking her back to Rome. She remembered how one of the soldiers, an officer, had looked in on her; she saw the look of pity on his face when she’d pleaded with him to kill her so she could join her dead lover.

But, of course, he hadn’t and she was still here waiting to go out in front of the mob to face her latest foe. Not that it really worried her, she’d fought many men and things in the arena during her career as a gladiatrix; she’d always won and there was no reason to think today would be any different. Her guardian, the Lady Ammonia Sextus, wife of Senator Ludricus Sextus; was a close friend of Fidelia Arsenius, who had once been known as Faith Lehane. It was weird how things turned out and although it had all been explained to her (by Willow, only here she was known as Shani, wife of Titus Pullo) Buffy wasn’t a hundred percent sure she understood everything even now.

It appeared that each of them had died or screwed up big time in their own realities. Then as part of some sort of cosmic practical joke they’d all ended up in this weird version of the early Roman Empire. But, and this was the bit that Buffy couldn’t quite get her head around, although they all knew each other they’d all come from different realities or something. Buffy tried not to think about it too much as it made her head hurt.

As if all this alternate reality stuff wasn’t bad enough, that bastard, Marcus Licinius Crassus (may he rot in Hades) had put an obedience spell on her so he could control her. If he hadn’t she’d have slit his throat the first chance she’d got. Anyway, he’d put this slave collar thing on her which had resisted all of Willow’s magical attempts at removing it; plus every attempt Faith’s blacksmith had made to get it off her. There was also a ring, which the Lady Ammonia had at the moment. While Buffy wore the collar, whoever had the ring could tell her to do stuff and she’d do it. Not only would she do it she’d do it happily and without hesitation. Luckily Lady Ammonia was a nice lady and seemed to be going out of her way not to tell Buffy to do _anything_ ; but if someone _bad_ ever got hold of the ring, Buffy would obey them just as she would have Ammonia. 

But today, Buffy didn’t have to worry about that, today she’d pick up her prize money to add to the money she already had. Back at the school, Buffy and the other gladiators had been allowed to keep any prize money or gifts they’d earnt from fighting (of course that money was lost to her now). Buffy had been planning on buying her own and her friend Eos’ freedom. But now, with her friend Eos already a Freedwoman, Buffy didn’t have to concern herself about that, now any money she earnt she could keep for when she was free of this cursed collar and she could live in her own little house and start a family of her own if she wanted.

A great roar from nearly twenty-thousand throats told Buffy that the clowns were about finished. Putting her eye back to the crack in the gate, she saw the last few survivors were being disarmed and herded towards the Gate of Death by the arena slaves. Other slaves started to drag away the dead while still others dispatched the wounded. The bodies would be taken away and dumped into the sea. 

Walking back to the bench, Buffy checked that her arm guard was properly buckled on and that her grieves were firmly in place protecting her shins. Slipping her left arm through the straps of her shield she tested its weight. Satisfied she placed her helmet firmly on her head and picked up her sword. Walking over to stand by the gate she glanced down to see her knife hanging from her belt.

That plain, simple weapon had saved her life on at least two occasions; once when she’d fought against Vastus Phallus; she’d literally cut his balls off with it on that occasion. The other time had been in Rome in front of the First Citizen himself; she’d used it to stab a Minotaur-like demon to death, the crowd had really loved that fight. Putting these memories of past victories to the back of her mind she went back to the gate and pressed her helmet against the crack once more. The slaves had cleared the last of the dead clowns from the sand and she could just hear the Editor of the games announcing the next event, hers, any moment now it would be her turn to entertain the mob.

Closing her eyes and taking a deep breath, Buffy controlled her heart making it beat steadily instead of wildly like it wanted to; she’d always been affected by stage fright. Hearing the sound of wood scraping on stone, she opened her eyes to see the gate disappear into a grove in the stonework above her head. There in front of her lay the sand of the arena stained here and there by the blood from past fights, the sun shone down brightly as she listened to the expectant murmuring of the crowd as they waited to see what would happen next. Taking a firm hold on her sword, Buffy stepped out into the sunlight and was greeted by a great roar of approval. 

Lifting her sword and shield in acknowledgement of the mob’s cheers, Buffy ran lightly towards the centre of the arena, her exposed breasts bouncing perkily as she ran. This little exhibition made the crowd cheer all the louder. No sooner had she stepped out onto the sand, some in the crowd had started to chant her name, slowly others joined in until the entire crowd called her name over and over sounding like some great beast or the waves of the sea crashing against the shore.

“Buffitrix! BUFFITRIX! **BUFFITRIX!** ”

Smiling in the privacy of her helmet, Buffy took strength from the crowd’s adulation. As long as she provided them with blood she’d be their idol and they would love her. Turning to face the VIP box, Buffy brought her sword and shield down to her side. As if at some signal the crowd’s cheers started to fade away until there was almost complete silence. Looking up at the box, Buffy caught sight of the pimply youth whose father was paying for these games; he probably wanted his son to run for some public office soon and it was never too early to get the mob on your side, politics it seemed to Buffy never changed. Lifting her sword towards the sky, Buffy saluted the box.

“We who are about to die salute you!” she called her voice echoing from the arena walls; her next words where drowned out by the renewed cheering of the crowd, “You spotty faced freak!”

Lowering her sword she turned to face the Gate of Death as it slowly opened, any moment now she’d get to see what fate and the Editor had set her against. Out of the darkness behind the now opened gate came three shambling forms. The hair that covered their human-like bodies was long and lank. They snarled and snapped at the audience as they tried to jump up and drag a victim into the arena. These attempts were frustrated by the nets hanging from heavy wooden stakes that stuck out from the wall of the arena preventing anyone, or anything, in the arena from getting into the crowd.

“EWWW!” Buffy’s nose wrinkled as the wind shifted and brought a whiff of the creature’s stench to her, she knew what they were and she knew that she’d be able to kill them quickly and easily…if she wanted to.

These were Hellhounds, Buffy remembered them from one of Giles’ books, she’d also fought their kind before. Why they were called ‘Hellhounds’ she didn’t know because they always reminded her of large apes from the way they ran. Whatever, Buffy shrugged; she crouched down behind her shield and started to move towards the creatures. She knew how to deal with these animals; they were fairly easy to kill no harder than a man or a large wolf really. Already she was working out how the fight would go. Three of these beasts could be dangerous; two could keep her distracted while the third moved in for the kill, then it would be ‘goodbye Buffitrix’. To prevent this sad event, she planned to kill one quickly and then toy with the other two before killing them; after all the crowd expected to see a show.

The hellhounds, being distracted by the noise and smell of the mob, hadn’t noticed Buffy’s slow advance until she was almost on top of them. When they did notice her, their heads snapped around and their eyes locked onto her like little, red, malign, searchlights. Snarling and growling in rage they charged at her almost as soon as they’d seen her. Readying her sword and shield, Buffy planted her feet firmly in the sand, as long as she could resist their initial assault she’d be able to put her plan into operation.

Hitting one beast in the face with her shield she knocked it away to her left. Another creature she cut with her sword drawing a howl of rage from its throat and a fan of blood from the wound she’d inflicted on its arm. Her actions made it appear as if she’d dropped her guard and was wide open to attack. The third as yet unengaged hellhound took its chance and leaped for her throat only to come into sudden and solid contact with the rim of her shield. No normal human could have recovered herself so quickly, but Buffy wasn’t a normal human she was a slayer and that little fact was about to prove fatal for at least one hellhound.

Blood and teeth flew in all directions as Buffy took a step towards the stunned and hurt monster, thrusting underarm with her gladius she rammed its blade into the hellhound’s belly. With all the strength of her arm and weight of her body behind it, the tip of her sword burst from the hellhound’s back. It yelped in pain and clawed weakly against the bronze surface of her shield and the steel of her armguard. Stepping back and again covering herself with her shield, Buffy ripped her sword from the hound’s stomach; she was vaguely aware of its guts unwinding onto the sand from the great, ragged hole in its belly. Stepping backwards several paces Buffy got into a position where the two remaining hellhounds were once again in front of her.

The two beasts seemed to pause for a moment, they looked at each other and then down at their fallen comrade. A moment later they were both heading for Buffy their jaws agape as spit and drool flew from their mouths. Slowly, Buffy proceeded to cut her victims into bloody hunks of putrid flesh. Always keeping one ear open to the sound of the crowd, Buffy timed her slow execution of the hellhounds perfectly. The trick was to keep the mob on your side, if you appeared to be dragging out your opponent’s death for too long after it was obvious you’d won the fight, the mob might start feeling sorry for your opponent. Alternatively you didn’t want to kill your adversaries too quickly because then the crowd would feel cheated of its entertainment. 

However, Buffy was a past mistress of this sort of performance, listening to the crowd she could always tell when it was time to bring the show to a close. The hellhounds made it easy for her to win the approval of the mob. They were too vicious and stupid to realise when they were beaten; even after she’d hamstrung both creature’s legs and cut their bodies to ribbons they still kept coming for her. Being careful not to let the hound’s animal instincts appear like bravery, Buffy moved in for the kill.

Using some deep reserves of strength one of the hounds dragged itself to its knees and clawed at Buffy’s legs. Dodging the wildly slashing claws, she stepped back from the hound before attacking once more; bringing her sword down and around she neatly severed the hound’s head from its neck. Spinning through the air the severed head left a trail of blood behind it before it hit the sand with a thump; its blood pattering like heavy, red rain onto the ground. The last hound died when she stunned it with a blow to the head with the edge of her shield. Rolling it onto its back she thrust her sword into its body and ripped it open from pubis to sternum. Blood fountained into the air for a moment to splash on her legs and cover the short white skirt she wore with large red spots.

Again raising her sword and shield in salute to the crowd’s wild cheers, Buffy walked slowly back to the centre of the arena where she once again acknowledged the pimply youth in the box. Smiling to herself as she turned and headed towards the Gate of Life, she wondering if she’d given the prospective public servant a hard-on. Back in the ‘day’ Buffy would have gone back to the arms of Caius who’d have given her sexual release. Now, of course, as she had no lover, she’d have to deal with her own needs or let her friend Eos give her one of her special massages. With these thoughts going through her mind and the cheers of the mob still echoing in her ears, Buffy walked back into the darkness of the Gate of Life and vanished from the view of her fans…until the next time.

0=0=0=0

**The House of Arsenius over looking Pompeii.**

Standing on her balcony, the Lady Fidelia Arsenius, looked out over Pompeii. From here she could see the great blue expanse of the bay next to which Pompeii had been built; she could also see the great volcano that loomed high over the city. Frowning as she always did when she looked at the great smoking mountain, she wondered when it was set to explode and destroy the city burying it under a thick layer of ash and pumice until sometime in the far future people would dig it up again.

The Lady Fidelia knew of the fate of Pompeii, because she’d once been called, Faith Lehane and even she had gone to school. One of the things she remembered from those brief educational visits was the destruction of the place where she now lived. It was a pity really because of the three villas that she and her husband owned this was by far the biggest and it was also her favourite. All her children, apart from her eldest, Marius, had been born here and she intended for the child she was carrying now to be born here as well.

Turning at the sound of a soft footstep behind her, Faith smiled when she saw Eos, the girl she’d saved from the smouldering wreckage of the gladiator school, come up behind her, the teenager stopped and paused before continuing towards her mistress.

“How do you do that, Domina?” The girl asked as she walked over to join Faith at the wall of the balcony.

“Good hearing,” Faith smiled down at the girl; Eos was only fourteen or fifteen and at five-foot-five Faith towered over her, people were short in the past, “How’s B?”

“Very well,” Eos replied happily, “I was with her at the games today she fought and killed three Canis-Hades; she was enjoying herself and she didn’t get injured.”

“Good,” Faith smiled and nodded her head; it was good to hear that Buffy was getting back to her old self after losing her lover. “You’ll be heading back to Pompeii tonight?”

“No, Domina, if you don’t mind I’ll stay the night, it’s already getting dark,” Eos was Buffy’s best friend and had been with her since they’d both been slaves at the Batiatus gladiator school; the girl was a loving and loyal friend to Buffy.

“Not a problem and I’m sure Ennius will be pleased to see you,” Faith knew everything that went on in her household; Ennius’ and Eos’ love affair in particular, “I want…” Faith groaned and sat down heavily on a marble bench, “Oh crap!” she gasped as a wave of nausea swept over her.

“Feeling sick?” Eos asked full of concern.

“Yeah,” Faith nodded her head as she grimly tried to control her stomach; she’d only been afflicted by so-called morning sickness when she’d been carrying Marius, this was what made her think that the baby she was now carrying was a boy. “Okay,” she gasped again, “it’s passed.”

Eos sat down next to her mistress and put a supportive arm around her shoulder.

“What was I saying?” Faith smiled as she collected her thoughts, “Oh, yeah, tomorrow I’m going to send Ennius with ya, he can help B train and such like.”

Her guard captain, Sextus Ennius, had met Buffy when Faith had first tried to buy her, Faith knew that Buffy needed someone to spar with and the ex-centurion was just the man. Plus, there were things that Ennius could do and places he could go that Eos or Buffy couldn’t. Faith cursed her poor timing at falling pregnant just now, normally she’d have sparred with Buffy but not now she was pregnant she couldn’t. Pausing, Faith nearly threw up again, turning to look at the teenager, she forced a smile.

“Look on me an’ tremble, Eos,” Faith told the girl grimly, “once upon a time I was a feared Gladiatrix and Venetrix now I’m a pregnant, thirty something woman about to lose her dinner.”

“Indeed, Domina,” Eos nodded her head with mock solemnity, “I will take your warning to heart.”

“But it won’t stop you opening your legs for Ennius, will it?” One day the girl would fall pregnant, Faith shook her head slowly, then she’d be sorry.

“But Domina,” Eos smiled impishly, “sex is so much fun!”

“You’ll learn,” Faith replied quietly as another wave of nausea swept over her, “you’ll learn.”

0=0=0=0


	2. Chapter 2

2.

**The House of Sextus, Pompeii.**

Opening her eyes, Buffy saw that it was morning. Pushing the light blanket off her legs, she sat up and placed her feet onto the bare wooden floor of her little cell. After rubbing the sleep from her eyes, she stood up and stretched cramped muscles, groaning at the stiffness in her body, she wished Eos was here to massage it all away. Unfortunately, Eos had had to go and see Fidelia (Buffy still couldn’t think of the woman as ‘Faith’ because she’d only ever known her as Fidelia Arsenius and not Faith Lehane) the night before. Hopefully her friend would be back later today and she’d be able to ease all her aches and pains away.

At the school there had been baths and steam rooms where a gladiatrix could relax as the dirt and blood was scrapped from her skin. Here Eos would tend to her with strong, nimble fingers and knead the knots out of her muscles relieving all the aches and pains caused by the demanding physical exercise of the arena. The young Greek girl was also an exceptional medicus, she knew how to stitch or bide up a wound properly. Her poultices were extremely effective at preventing infections from setting in; in fact as well as being a sweet, friendly, happy girl, Eos was the best friend a gladiatrix could have.

After washing and drying her face, Buffy slipped on the long blue-grey dress that was her day time attire. As she did so her fingers came into contact with the narrow strip of bronze that encircled her neck. While she wore that collar she would happily obey any order given to her by whoever wore the ring that controlled the spell. The idea of even thinking about not obeying an order wouldn’t enter her mind. Fortunately Lady Ammonia was a nice woman who tried to not to ‘tell’ Buffy to do anything. Whenever she wanted her to do anything, Ammonia always couched her orders as requests or suggestions giving Buffy the option of refusing to do whatever it was she’d asked her to do. After all, Buffy was no longer officially a slave, she’d been made a Freedwoman on the same day that Eos had. Unfortunately until some way was found of removing the cursed slave collar she would have to continue to play the part of the good, obedient slave girl. If fact this was one of the very few orders that Lady Ammonia had given her using the power of the ring. As her free status was known to only to Fidelia, Eos and Ammonia herself, Buffy needed to play the roll of slave and gladiatrix convincingly.

There was something else about the spell on the collar that no one, not even Buffy had suspected. It had the effect of making her more open to suggestion to people in authority and more inclined to go along with anything they said. So, although Lady Ammonia was careful never to order Buffy to do anything dangerous, her suggestions carried more weight in Buffy’s mind than they normally would. This meant she was more likely to agree to anything Ammonia, or indeed anyone in her immediate family, asked her to do.

Her fingers lingering on the collar; Buffy could feel the words and symbols engraved into the metal. The words gave a simple message to anyone that looked, they told them that Buffy was the property of Marcus Licinius Crassus (may he rot in Hades) and if found she should be returned to her master when a reward would be paid. The symbols held the spell that kept her in thrall to whoever wore the ring; Buffy wondered if she could somehow obliterate the symbols. Would that be enough to break the spell that held her captive? As these thoughts went through her mind her eyes fell on her weapons and armour that hung from hooks on the wall opposite her bed. 

Sighing a little Buffy walked over to examine her gear. Fingering the leather and metal, she decided that she really needed to give all her equipment a major overhaul very soon. Having been taught how to care for her weapons and armour by her old coach, Sempronius, Buffy never left this work to a mere slave, a slave would never do it properly; this was a job that only she could do. Although she’d given her gear a quick clean-up after her bout with the hellhounds the previous day, there was still dried blood under where the metal strips of her arm guard overlapped. If it was left where it was it could become sticky and might stop the metal plates from sliding over each other smoothly, also it would start to smell. Nodding her head in agreement with herself, Buffy decided to make time today and spend a couple of hours getting her gear into tip-top condition.

0=0=0=0

After tying a chord around the waist of her dress, Buffy made her way down through the villa from her little sleeping cell to the kitchen. Slaves, like her, slept on the first floor, while the family slept on the ground floor. Entering the room she picked up a small loaf of bread, broke it in two, dipped it into some olive oil and started to eat.

“Morning, Scrubba!” Buffy called to the only other occupant of the kitchen.

“Mornin’ Trix,” Scrubba the cook looked up from the other side of the kitchen where she stirred a pot that hung over an open fire.

Buffy liked Scrubba, she was a cheerful girl of about seventeen (near enough Buffy’s own age) she had long auburn hair and a very attractive face and figure; she was also a very good cook. When Buffy wasn’t fighting or training she spent her time down in the kitchen helping Scrubba prepare the meals for the family and the household slaves. Buffy had found she enjoyed the work and was even becoming a passable cook herself.

“Can you give me a hand here?” Scrubba stood up from the pot and turned towards Buffy, “I’m cooking songbirds in honey later and I wondered if you’d…” Scrubba’s voice faded as she gave Buffy an embarrassed look “…you know? I hate wringing their little necks, can you do it?”

“Sure,” Buffy said around a mouthful of bread and oil, she swallowed before asking, “how many do you want?”

“A dozen,” Scrubba smiled in relief, she hated touching live birds.

“Not a problem,” Buffy smiled at the girl’s squeamishness, “I’ll get onto it after I’ve finished eating this.”

“No you won’t,” came a male voice from over by the kitchen door; it was Lurcio the family steward who actually ran the household; although he was a slave he held this important position in the household, “Trix is coming with me, you’ll have to kill your own birds, Scrubba.”

“Where are we going?” Buffy asked as she gave Scrubba a resigned shrug and finished off her piece of bread.

“I’ve need of your special talents young Trix,” Lurcio bustled about the kitchen looking into storage jars and cupboards as he make notes on the wax tablet in his hand. 

Lurcio wasn’t such a bad guy, he kept his hands to himself (actually Buffy thought he was a bit gay as he never took advantage of any of the female slaves even Scrubba who threw herself at him on an almost daily basis) and she’d never seen him hit or beat anyone.

“Special talents?” Buffy asked with a frown, “You want me to, like, kill someone?”

“No!” Lurcio replied with and exasperated sigh, “I need your unnatural strength, now stop messing around and pick up that basket over there, we’re going shopping.”

“Shopping?” Buffy glanced at the basket in question it was very nearly as tall as she was; she sighed sadly as she picked it up and hung it over her shoulder, “Reduced to being a beast of burden.”

“Well,” Lurcio pursed his lips as he placed his hands on his hips, “you eat enough for one, so you might as well work like one,” he gestured towards the door, “come-on.”

“I so do not eat like a beast of burden!” Buffy complained as she followed Lurcio outside.

Heading out the door, Lurcio lead the way out into the stable yard and through the gate to the square beyond. Even at such an early hour the square was crowded with citizens and slaves buying food and other necessities from the market stalls. Following Lurcio through the press of people, Buffy looked into people’s baskets as she walked by to see what was popular today. It always amazed her how historians had got things so wrong; Bananas were a case in point. Buffy had always been taught that bananas came from the Caribbean and that the Romans would have never have seen them let alone have them on sale in their markets. Yet there they were in women’s shopping baskets, bunches of bananas. Of course the Roman’s didn’t call them bananas they called them Flavus-digtus, but as far as Buffy could see they were bananas. There were also a few other things that Buffy wasn’t sure were historically correct; once she’d almost been sure she’d seen tomatoes!

As Buffy followed Lurcio from stall to stall he placed items into the basket on her back. Not that she minded being used as a glorified supermarket trolley; Buffy liked walking around the market seeing what was on sale at the stalls and listening to people gossip. It made her feel more alive somehow, more a part of the world and not just like the killing machine she’d been treated like for the last couple of years. When the basket was almost half full, Lurcio and herself came to the shop run by Prosperous Maximus; Prosperous and his wife Voluptua sold the more exotic goods not normally available on the market stalls.

“Looks like your Master’s having an orgy tonight,” Prosperous observed as he passed Lurcio flasks of fish sauce.

“Yes I’m afraid he is,” Lurcio sighed as he placed the bottles into the basket on Buffy’s back, “he’s having one of his ‘at homes’,” Lurcio sighed again at the thought of all the extra work his master was causing him, “this time its to honour the Proconsul…I mean its alright for them but its me who has to clean up all the mess!”

“Ha!” Prosperous laughed as he passed Lurcio one last bottle of sauce, “You do the cleaning up? What, when you’ve got strong, young, slave girls like Trix there to do the hard work for you? Pull the other one!”

“That’s as maybe,” Lurcio replied a little put out by the suggestion that he wasn’t working his fingers to the bone every moment of every day, “but its still a lot of unnecessary work.”

Buffy grinned at Prosperous who gave her a conspiratorial wink as he passed her a fig to try without Lurcio noticing, they were both used to Lurcio’s moaning and complaining.

“I’ll need to hire some girls,” Lurcio added after consulting his shopping list.

“Girls?” Prosperous’ smile got wider, “I didn’t think you were interested in girls Lurcio.”

“Not for me,” Lurcio ignored the implied suggestion, “for my master’s party.”

“Oh,” again Prosperous gave Buffy another amused look as he noted down what Lurcio had bought so he could send the bill to the house later on, “you’ll have to see the wife, I think she’s just got some new stock in.”

“Thank-you,” Lurcio nodded to the shop keeper, “come on Trix, let’s see what Domina Voluptua has on offer.”

Shifting the basket to a more comfortable position as she bit into her fig, Buffy followed Lurcio along the street for a few yards until they came to a gate in the wall of Prosperous’ house. Pushing the gate open, Lurcio led the way into the small courtyard beyond.

“SHOP!” He called loudly as he gestured for Buffy to put down her basket, they’d probably be here for some time. “You join me over here Trix,” Lurcio waved Buffy over to stand next to him, “you can help me choose.”

“Yes Dominus, how can I help y…oh its you Lurcio,” the words came from the mouth of a young girl, Cassandra the daughter of the house; she was thirteen years old and her disdain of Lurcio and her hero worship of Buffy were well known. “Oh!” Her eyes lit up when she saw Buffy, “Buffitrix how are you this morning? I saw you at the games yesterday you were fantastic and so brave.”

“I’m fine,” Buffy replied with a smile, “thank-you for asking, yourself?”

“Wonderful…” Cassandra gazed longingly at the older woman and sighed with unrequited love.

“You know you could bed that girl,” Lurcio told Buffy in a loud whisper, “if you were that way inclined.”

“Get outta here!” Buffy punched Lurcio playfully on the arm, “It’d be like doing it with my little sister, if I had one.”

“Whatever,” Lurcio shrugged as he rubbed his arm where Buffy had punched him, “but I think you’re missing an opportunity.”

“What can I do for you?” Cassandra asked suddenly remembering she was supposed to be helping her mother run the family business.

“Orgy girls,” Lurcio asked the teenager, “got anything new in?”

“Not sure,” Cassandra replied, “I’ll go an’ fetch mum.”

Watching Cassandra run off to fetch her mother, Buffy found herself staring after the girl longingly. Perhaps Lurcio was right, maybe she was missing an opportunity for some romance with the girl. Shaking her head, Buffy told herself ‘no’, not that she had anything against a little loving with a girl. Eos had shown her some affection on more than a few occasions, but she preferred going with guys…but just at the moment there were no guys in her life and there were unlikely to be any soon so…why not have a fling with young Cassie?

“Ah! Lurcio,” Voluptua appeared in a doorway, “I hear you’re in the market for some girls.”

Voluptua Maximus was an attractive woman in her late twenties she’d been married to her husband since she was thirteen, however they only had the one child, Cassandra, to show for their fourteen or fifteen years of marriage. The woman ran the slave market side of the Maximus business specialising in young and willing orgy girls for sale or hire.

“Salvete, Domina Voluptua,” Lurcio smiled at the woman, “I need four girls.”

“Certainly, Lurcio,” Voluptua asked in all seriousness, “to take-away or will you ‘ave ‘em ‘ere?”

“Not for me, silly,” Lurcio rolled his eyes, “they’re for my master’s party tonight, he wants something young and fresh.”

“That’ll cost extra,” Voluptua pointed out.

“Why should I care?” Lurcio shrugged helplessly, “It all comes out of my master’s purse. It’ll just be one night’s hire, I doubt he’ll want to keep them for long…”

“You mean that Domina Ammonia won’t want him to keep them for long,” Buffy pointed out with a grin.

“True,” Lurcio nodded at Buffy before turning back to the slave dealer, “well?”

“You know my terms,” Voluptua pointed out; she’d charge for one night's hire plus a deposit that Lurcio would get back if the girl’s were returned in good condition.

“Oh I suppose that’ll do,” Lurcio admitted, “now what’ve you got?”

“CASSANDRA!” Voluptua called to her daughter who’d disappeared into the house.

“MUM?” The girl’s voice floated over from somewhere on the ground floor.

“Pop down stairs and bring up half a dozen girls from the third pen on the right,” ordered the girl’s mother.

A few moments later, Cassandra herded six girls out into the court yard, she prodded them into line using the long cane that she carried in her right hand.

“These any good for you?” Voluptua asked.

“Hmmm,” Lurcio stroked his chin before turning to Buffy, “I can never make up my mind, what do you think, Trix?”

Walking over to the line of girls, Buffy started to look them over. When she’d first arrived in the past she’d been shocked at the way people were treated as objects. However, after nearly two years of being treated like a commodity herself her heart had grown hard.

Walking along the short line, Buffy checked the girl’s hair, nails and teeth. Satisfied that all the girls were in good health (Voluptua’s girls usually were), she walked behind them checking for any signs that they’d had to be beaten into obedience. The girl’s backs, buttocks and thighs were clear of any evidence of recent beatings. Buffy knew that the most effective way to ensure a slave’s obedience was to threaten to take away their food, however, these girls were not only unmarked but they looked well fed. Walking back to stand next to Lurcio, Buffy cast her eyes over the girls one last time, she chose the three girls with the biggest breasts and widest hips, she knew her master’s preferences.

“Numbers one, two, and five, we’ll take them; the other’s are a bit skinny,” Buffy announced.

“Fair enough,” Lurcio agreed with Buffy’s choice, he turned to look at Voluptua once again, “have you got something similar to make up the numbers?”

“I’m sure I must have,” agreed Voluptua, “do you want to see?”

“No, no,” Lurcio shook his head, “we’re late as it is,” he smiled at the slave dealer, “you know what we want, I’ll trust your choice for the last one.”

“Can I help you with anything else?” Voluptua asked, “A young boy for yourself perhaps? A stud for young Trix there, I don’t carry that kind of stock but I have connections…”

“Domina please!” Lurcio gasped full of righteous indignation, “I don’t know what you mean!”

Buffy giggled into her hand, a stud would be nice but not so soon after eating figs.

“Come on, Trix,” Lurcio started to turn for the gate, but then he remembered something and turned back as Buffy continued to head for the exit. “Oh, could you clean them up, give them a full body pluck and have them over at my master’s house by the ninth hour?”

“Cost extra,” Voluptua called.

“Doesn’t everything?” Lurcio replied morosely, “Just add it to the bill.” He looked over to where Buffy was waiting, “Come on Trix lets get home and don’t forget the shopping.”

“How could I?” Buffy replied as she swung the basket back up onto her shoulder.

Leading the way out into the square, Buffy became aware of a disturbance of some sort; she could hear people shouting and the sound of horse’s hooves on the cobbles. Just as she was thinking how unusual it was to hear horses in the square, she looked up just in time to see the cause of all the noise.

“Make way!” cried the officer who was riding at the head of a small column of soldiers, “Make way you scum!” he cried as he cracked a long whip in the air over the heads of the crowd.

The crowd scurried quickly out of the rider’s way, but it didn’t seem fast enough for the officer as he urged his horse into the mass of people pushing them out of the way or knocking them to the ground.

“YOU, SLAVE!” the officer yelled as he approached Buffy, “Move y’self!”

Struggling to keep the basket on her shoulder in the press of people, Buffy found she couldn’t move out of the way fast enough for the arrogant man.

“MOVE I SAY!” The officer brought his horse to a bad tempered halt and cracked his whip over Buffy’s head.

“Okay! Okay!” Buffy cried as she tried to manoeuvre herself and her basket out of the way, “I’m moving as fast as I can!”

However fast Buffy might or might not have been trying to move it wasn’t fast enough for the officer. Raising his whip he brought it cracking down, catching Buffy on her shoulder and leaving an angry red welt on her skin.

“OWW!” Buffy wailed as she stumbled and fell to the cobbles her basket falling from her shoulder to send shopping rolling across the cobbles.

Livid with fury the officer raised his whip again to bring it down once more on the helpless slave girl’s back. He’d teach her to hold him up while he was on important business. Unfortunately for the officer the slave girl wasn’t as helpless as she appeared to be. This time when he swung his whip to lash Buffy; her arm shot out faster than the whip could move. Catching the end of the whip in her hand, she wrapped the leather thong around her wrist and pulled. With a cry of alarm the officer was dragged from his saddle to fall onto the hard, unforgiving, cobblestones there by causing much amusement in the crowd.

“Just who the Hades do you think you are?” Demanded Lurcio as he strode over to the downed officer; “What gives you the right to beat other people’s property?”

“Why you...!?” The officer struggled into a sitting position as he tried to push his helmet up off his eyes were it had been rammed down by his tumble.

“Do you know,” Lurcio continued not giving the officer a chance to speak, “that this girl belongs to Senator Ludricus Hyginus Sextus?” Lurcio paused for the news to sink in; the old senator was popular with the people. “She’s one of his favourites and he won’t be happy to hear that you’ve been using your whip on her.”

The crowd muttered its agreement as Lurcio helped Buffy to her feet and they started to replace the shopping into her basket. After removing his helmet from where it was jammed down over his eyes, the officer saw which way the wind was blowing and decided on a slightly more conciliatory approach.

“I’m on the First Citizens business,” he lied, “I have urgent dispatches.”

Ignoring the officer and leaving him to the tender mercies of the crowd who were now booing menacingly, Lurcio continued to help Buffy repack the basket. In his hurry, Lurcio accidentally picked up something that didn’t belong in the basket. It was in fact one of the officer’s dispatches.

0=0=0=0

**Author’s Note: Bananas** , yes we know that the Romans never had bananas. But in the film ‘Up Pompeii’ they can be clearly seen on market stalls and in people’s fruit dishes. Now, I have a sneaky feeling that ‘Up Pompeii’ being a low budget, movie spin-off of a half hour TV comedy show, might not be exactly 100% historically accurate! Yes, I know that’s hard to believe, but there you go! Anyway, once I’d spotted them I decided to keep them in the Fic as a sort of running gag. 


	3. Chapter 3

3.

**Maximus Sextus Square, Pompeii.**

Walking around the corner of the narrow street and into the square, Cordelia stopped; reaching out she placed her hand on Dawn’s arm and brought her to a halt. As Dawn was nearly seven months pregnant now she couldn’t move like she used to and Cordelia didn’t like taking her into boisterous looking crowds.

“What’s wrong?” Dawn asked as she tried to look around Cordelia’s body and into the square.

There appeared to be some sort of disturbance going on. A crowd of town’s people were booing and jostling a small group of mounted soldiers. The two young women watched as rotten fruit was thrown and the soldiers hurriedly retreated down a side street.

“I think its okay now,” Cordelia led the way cautiously across the crowded little square towards a street that ran alongside a large shabby looking town villa.

“You know,” Dawn said uneasily, “this doesn’t look like a very nice area, are you sure this is the best we can afford?”

“Don’t be fooled by outward appearances,” Cordelia replied as she led her ‘Mistress’ across the square, “Look,” Cordelia stopped again to look down at Dawn, “I’m told a real live senator lives in one of these villa’s.” The older girl started to walk on again, “Come-on the realtor is waiting for us.”

The two women had arrived in the past in Judea, which probably wasn’t the best place to spring into existence if you needed to be in Pompeii. Since then life had been more than a little unfair to Dawn Summers or Aurora Aestatis as she was now called. Having jumped off Glory’s tower to save the world, she’d been transported back to this version of the early Roman Empire. From that point things had gone down hill; she’d found herself in the body of a young princess just as her escort had been ambushed and one of the brigands doing the ambushing was about to rape her. Later, Dawn found herself the target of several kidnapping and assignation attempts. Add to this that her body’s previous owner still appeared to be in residence it only seemed right that the one time she’d had sex with her fiancé she’d fallen pregnant. 

Add to this being shipwrecked by a Kraken, bumping into her worse enemy from Sunnydale Junior High who was now married to her sister’s friend, Xander Harris, who now wanted to throw Dawn in prison and execute her. Well to be honest, Dawn was surprised she’d handled everything without going insane (we haven’t mentioned the hydra and the skeleton warriors yet either!) this was down to the help and support of her friend, confidante and Lady’s Maid, Cordelia Chase (adversity made strange bed fellows…in more ways than one).

Cordelia on the other hand had arrived naked and sitting in a slave pen where she was eventually discovered by ‘Princess Dawn’ who was on the look out for a new maid. While initially their partnership wasn’t exactly a match made in heaven their relationship had recently become a lot closer. This was probably due to all the Hydras, skeletal warriors, homicidal ex-friends and their really bad luck in general.

Arriving outside the small villa, Cordelia compared the address painted on the wall to the address written on the small scrap of parchment in her hand. Deciding that they were in the right place she pushed open the gate that led from the street into a small courtyard. In the courtyard they saw a few chickens scratching around in the dust and a couple of goats tethered to a wall where they chewed on mouthfuls vegetable waste. 

“This is it, Domina,” Cordelia gestured for Dawn to precede her across the courtyard as they played their game of mistress and slave.

Sweeping imperiously across the yard, Dawn carefully held her long dress away from the ground so it wouldn’t get soiled. Reaching the door of the empty little villa, Dawn glanced inside, it looked more than a little run down, but their girls would soon have the place looking spic and span. The yard was big enough for the girls to practice in and there looked like there was enough room for everyone to sleep inside. No one would have to sleep in the stables, which was just as well because there didn’t appear to be any. A man in sober business clothes stood in the middle of the hall with an impatient look on his face. When he noticed Dawn, however, his sullen look changed to one of professional joy.

“Lady Aurora?” He called, originally Dawn had been known as Princess Roshan in Judea, but she’d dumped the name as soon as she could; the name and title had long outlived its usefulness.

Walking haughtily into the villa, Dawn nodded regally to the realtor before gesturing for Cordelia to deal with the man. While Cordelia dealt with negotiating the rent, Dawn walked slowly around the atrium and looked into the peristyle. The villa looked as if it hadn’t been lived in for some time. There were a lot of doors leading off the atrium; she looked into one or two to see dark little rooms each with one small shuttered window high up on the wall. These were probably the bedchambers, Dawn suspected that the other doors led to other bedrooms, she hoped there was at least one big room for Cordelia and herself to share.

“Well?” Cordelia came over to stand next to Dawn, she looked hopefully at her friend, “What do you think?”

“Well…” Dawn hesitated, it wasn’t bad, the drains didn’t stink, but it was a long way from the governor’s palace in Jerusalem (of course terrorists had tried to kidnap her from the palace).

“I know it’s a bit of a dump,” Cordelia smiled hopefully, “but the girls will soon have it cleaned up.”

“How much?” Dawn wanted to know.

“Two-hundred a month,” Cordelia replied, adding, “Is that a lot?”

“A little below average,” Dawn frowned as she wondered why they were getting it so cheap.

“Can we afford that?” Cordelia wanted to know.

“Not a problem,” Dawn shrugged and turned away to look across the atrium towards the front door, “Pay the man,”

Pulling a purse from the satchel that she wore across her shoulder, Cordelia counted the coins into the man’s hand. With the money they had on hand they could stay here for about a year. But as soon as people heard that Domina Aurora’s Saltratrices Celsus were in town the jobs and the money would come rolling in. There were of course the letters of credit hidden away in the satchel on Cordelia’s hip, they’d give them access to the main part of their fortune.

Having stolen the Golden Fleece, and some jewels from Colchis (where Xander was King), Dawn had used the fleece to buy the ship they needed to make their escape to Italy. Once in Italy she’d got a good price for both the ship and its cargo. With this money they’d been able to buy somewhere to live and start up the erotic cheerleading troupe that was there main source of income. The idea for the cheerleaders had been Cordelia’s, who was now their coach and sort of den mother. Somehow she’d seen that Roman’s would pay to see scantily clad teenage girls doing suggestive dance routines at sports events; it was a real money maker with the added advantage of there not being any competition. 

“Okay, Domina,” Cordelia injected some ‘pep’ into her voice; hell, she smiled broadly as Dawn turned to look at her. “Let’s get busy!” Cordelia took off the satchel and laid it on a stone bench. “I’ll go get the girls and the rest of our stuff and you can wait here, okay?”

“Sure,” Dawn nodded, “not a problem, and we’ll totally need stuff, food a couple of blankets each, stuff like that.” Opening the satchel, Dawn picked up a purse of coins and gave it to Cordelia, “You know the sorta things, right? Eventually we’ll need to hire a cook and keep an eye open for some musicians will you?”

“Yeah, right,” Cordelia sighed, “anything else you want me to do in my copious spare time?”

“No,” Dawn grinned mischievously at her friend, “that’ll be all for now ‘slave’, you can run along, go!”

Sticking out her tongue at Dawn’s dismissive gesture, Cordelia took the money and headed on out the door, Dawn watched her friend until she’d left the courtyard. Turning away from the door she headed into one of the little rooms. First she took off her dress and put on the older slightly ragged one that’d been stuffed into the satchel with the money. After putting on the old dress she carefully hung the good one up on a hook behind the door.

“Right,” Dawn said to herself quietly as she hefted a wide bladed dagger in her hand, “time to find somewhere safe to put our stash.”

In a world where reliable locks were basically non-existent, Dawn needed to find somewhere to hide their valuables. Realising that any hiding place she found was probably known to the realtor who could come along and help himself (a lesson quickly learnt about living in the past; trust no one unless you’d bought their loyalty). So, they would need to make a new hidey hole. Walking back out into the atrium she saw a likely spot over by a pillar, squatting down with a groan as her back complained and her belly got I the way; Dawn got to work on a loose flag stone.

0=0=0=0

**The home of Proconsul Lecherous Maximus, Pompeii.**

The tribune walked into the audience chamber still brushing dust and pieces of rotten fruit off his uniform. If he ever saw that blonde headed slave girl again he’d give her such a whipping for causing him so much humiliation; she’d soon be screaming for mercy. He didn’t care who she belonged to; she’d regret the day she’d ever crossed paths with Tribune Gannicus Crixus. Drawing what little dignity he had left around himself he marched over to where the proconsul and his beautiful young wife lay on adjoining couches. He raised his arm in salute to the proconsul.

“Ave, Proconsul Lecherous Maximus,” Crixus greeted the older man, while studiously ignoring the lustful looks Lady Daili gave him as she lay languidly on the couch next to the proconsul’s.

“What news, Tribune?” Lecherous shifted on his couch, he noticed the look the soldier was giving the woman by his side, “Oh, don’t worry about Daili, her mind is incapable of understanding anything we might talk about.”

“Good news,” Tribune Crixus relaxed a little, “the First Citizen has accepted your invitation to visit Pompeii, he’ll be arriving at the end of month and I am to be in charge of the security arrangements!”

“Excellent!” Lecherous sat up and smiled evilly before his face fell as he realised something, “So soon? That only gives us about six or seven days.”

“But your Excellency,” Crixus took a step closer to his fellow plotter, “everything is in place; our fellow patriots in Rome are ready to seize control of the senate, the sooner the better I say!”

“Hmm,” the proconsul looked pensively at the floor, “perhaps you’re right Crixus, the longer we wait the more we risk discovery.” He looked up into Crixus’ eager face, “Yes,” Lecherous nodded his head firmly as he came to a decision, “we assassinate Octavian when he visits Pompeii, then we seize control of the country and empire, by the beginning of the new year, I shall be Emperor of Rome and you my loyal friend,” Lecherous smiled at Crixus all the while thinking that it was probably wise to ensure that the soldier died as soon as he got to power, “you will be commander of all her armies! Now,” Lecherous let the smile slip from his face, “you have the final list of our supporters?”

“Of course, Proconsul,” Crixus reached into the satchel on his hip, his hand searched frantically for the scroll that wasn’t there, “How? Where?”

“What’s wrong man?” Demanded the proconsul urgently. 

“The scroll, sir,” gasped Crixus, “it’s gone, but I had it only…” Crixus thought back, he knew he’d had the scroll when he’d entered the city.

“GONE!” Screamed Lecherous, “Gods below, what do you mean gone?” Visions of himself hanging from a cross filled his panicking mind for a moment. “If it should fall into the wrong hands we’ll all be hanging from crosses by the end of the day! First offences or not!” Roman justice was swift and fatal even for a first offence. “Think man, think, where did you lose it?”

“If I knew that it wouldn’t be lost!” Crixus snapped back while he mentally reviewed the times of ships leaving the port for places very, very far away; First Citizen Octavian Caesar wasn’t the sort of man you tried to plot against, let alone kill.

Suddenly Crixus’ face lit up as the denarius dropped, of course the altercation in the market square when he’d fallen from his horse.

“By the Gods!” Crixus gasped.

“What now?” Demanded Lecherous.

“The slave girl!” Crixus could see it all now, everything that had happened had obviously been planned, there was no other explanation for it.

“What slave girl?” Lecherous demanded, “Don’t tell me you lost it while you were screwing some whore!” The proconsul stood up and looked as if he was about to strangle Crixus with his own bare hands, or at the very least send for a slave to do it for him.

“No!” Crixus quickly explained what had happened in the market square, “Don’t you see?” he demanded earnestly, “It must have been a put up job; the girl clearly stole the scroll for her master, Senator Ludricus Sextus!”

“Ludricus Sextus!” Exclaimed Lecherous angrily, “That old fool…but…” an unpleasant thought crossed Lecherous’ mind, Ludricus Sextus might be an old fool but he was an ardent supporter of the First Citizen. “You must get the scroll back,” Lecherous announced, “I don’t care how many people you have to kill to do it but get it back and get it back soon.”

“Don’t worry, Proconsul I will,” Crixus was already imagining all the vile and perverted things he planned to do to the little, blonde, slave girl.

“Oh but I do worry,” Lecherous sneered, “you’re the one who lost it in the first place…NOW GO!”

Pointing at the door Lecherous watched Crixus scurry from the room, hopefully the fool would get the scroll with its list of plotters back. If he didn’t, Lecherous thought about which of his ships was in port at the moment; the Sea Nymph, she was a fast ship. He could be in the east in a week or two and disappear across the border in another week maybe less. The First Citizen would never find him there…he hoped.

0=0=0=0

**The Kitchens of the House of Sextus, Pompeii.**

Dumping her shopping basket onto the floor, Buffy pushed her way across the crowded room and helped herself to some fresh water from the pipe that fed water into the kitchen. As she drank she glanced at her shoulder to see the red mark left by the officer’s whip when he’d struck her. Even though the mark would fade to nothing in a few hours it’d still hurt; one day when she was properly free she’d make all the people who’d been mean to her pay…which meant she’d be really busy for at least a couple of weeks.

Turning to survey the kitchen, Buffy noted that most of the household slaves had been put to helping Scrubba prepare food for the orgy tonight. Pushing her way between the busy slaves, Buffy got back to her shopping basket and started to unload it. Despite almost everything having been tipped out onto the ground, nothing looked damaged or broken. Lifting out bottles of fish sauce and strings of onions, Buffy reached in and removed a bunch of bananas, once again wondering how historians could have got it so wrong. Looking into the basket once more, Buffy saw something else that shouldn’t be there.

“Odd,” she said to herself as she pulled the scroll from where it had lain hidden under the bananas, “how did this get in here?”

Opening it, she looked at the writing, although Buffy couldn’t read Latin or Greek she recognised it for what it was, a list of names. Perhaps, she thought, it belonged to Ludricus Sextus, her master, and it was the list of guests for the orgy tonight.

“What’s that you’ve got there Trix?” Lurcio asked from behind her.

“Not sure,” Buffy shrugged as she rolled up the scroll, “probably belongs to the Dominus, I think it’s the guest list for tonight.”

“Oh, the silly old fool,” Lurcio sighed thinking his absent-minded master must have left it somewhere and it’d gotten picked up by mistake, “you better get it back to him.”

“Okay,” Buffy replied with a smirk, “but you know what’ll happen if I go up there.”

“Well make sure you don’t take too long about it this time,” Lurcio replied as he gestured to the stairs that led up to the ground floor, “now get along with you.”

With a shrug, Buffy took the scroll and headed for the stairs and her master Ludricus’ study.

0=0=0=0

**Ludricus’ Study.**

“Friends, Pompeian’s, countrymen lend me your feet!” Senator Ludricus Hyginus Sextus sat at his desk reading from a scroll which he held up to the light coming in through the window behind him.

Standing just inside the doorway, Buffy realised that the ‘old fool’ hadn’t noticed her. If she was very quiet and used all of her sneaky, slayer, skills, perhaps she could creep in, leave the scroll on his desk and tiptoe out again without him noticing her. Only half way to his desk, Buffy stopped and sighed with frustration as the old man looked up and saw her.

“Ah, Trix!” He smiled, he liked Buffy and was always pleased to see her and that, in a nut shell, was the problem; Ludricus Sextus _liked_ Buffy way too much for her piece of mind. “Do you like my speech? I thought that was quite an original opening, don’t you think?”

“Wouldn’t, ‘lend me your ears’ be better, Dominus?” Buffy answered uncertainly.

“Ears?” Ludricus gave Buffy a quizzical look, “That wouldn’t make sense, Trix. I want people to help me stamp out all the sin and vice that has taken hold of our fair city. You can’t stamp with your ears girl, where’s the sense in that?”

“Of course, Dominus,” Buffy started to back towards the door, “I’m just a foolish slave girl, what do I know?”

“Yes you are, Trix,” Ludricus wasn’t one of the people who knew Buffy wasn’t really a slave, “but you’re also a very pretty slave girl, now come here.”

“Oooh,” Buffy moaned miserably, she really didn’t have time to fuss around with her master just now, there was work to be done, “do I have to, Dominus?”

The spell on the collar was making her susceptible to Ludricus’ orders and Buffy soon found herself walking towards the old man.

“Yes, you do,” Ludricus said happily as he pulled up the front of his toga exposing his already erect penis, “I appear to have a swelling, would you mind dealing with it, Trix?”

“Yes Dominus,” Buffy sighed resignedly as she walked the last couple of paces towards the old senator.

Kneeling in front of him, Buffy took his swollen manhood into her mouth and started to suck; she sighed internally as she ran her lips and tongue up and down his rigid shaft. At least he was clean and didn’t smell, she reflected before taking as much of him into her mouth as she could and then slowly pulling back until just the tip of his cock was still between her lips. If she did a good job perhaps he’d come quickly and she could get back to work. But that was the problem wasn’t it, she was too good at it, after all she’d practiced enough on her boyfriend Caius. As they said; no good turn goes unpunished.

0=0=0=0


	4. Chapter 4

4.

**The House of Sextus, Pompeii.**

“Oh! What an orgy this is going to be!” Exclaimed Ammonia Sextus as she burst into the atrium with Buffy following hard on her heels.

“Yes Domina,” Buffy replied non-committally; so far no one had mentioned what her part in the orgy was going to be, she had a feeling that she was soon going to find out.

“Everybody who is anybody will be there,” Ammonia Sextus had a disconcerting habit of talking to Buffy as if she was one of her closest friends, “the proconsul himself has said he’ll definitely be here, after all the party’s in his honour…” Ammonia paused as a thoughtful look crossed her face, “…I only hope there’s enough sin and vice to go round.”

“I expect there will be, Domina,” Buffy commented dryly.

“You know last time,” Ammonia continued as she examined a bunch of bananas that had been artistically arranged around the base of a small statue, “half the men gave out before morning, just as I was starting to feel a little peckish myself.”

“Indeed, Domina,” Buffy agreed; the last orgy held at the Sextus villa had been a wild affair, luckily Buffy’s duties had kept her well away from the ‘action’, she had no great wish to get involved with one of Lady Ammonia’s ‘party’s’.

“You don’t sound very enthusiastic, young Trix,” Ammonia glanced at Buffy over her shoulder as she rearranged some flowers, “which is why I’ve decided to make you part of the entertainment tonight.”

“Oh, thank-you, Domina,” Buffy replied unenthusiastically; deep inside she shuddered, Buffy was well aware of what Ammonia Sextus considered ‘entertainment’; Ammonia might be a nice lady but she was also a woman of her times.

“There’s no need to sound like that,” Ammonia said quietly, “what I’ve got planned isn’t that dangerous and you do want my party to go well, don’t you?”

“Of course Domina,” Buffy replied quickly not noticing the spell making her more amenable to Ammonia’s requests.

“That’s better,” Ammonia pursed her lips as she looked at Buffy, “now, are you decently plucked?”

“Yes Domina,” Buffy replied suppressing the sigh she felt bubbling up inside her.

“All over?” Ammonia wanted to know.

“Yes Domina,” Buffy couldn’t help but roll her eyes, luckily Ammonia didn’t notice or if she did she didn’t say anything.

“Good,” Ammonia nodded her head to herself as she thought something through, “Go and fetch half a dozen practice swords from the armoury and leave them somewhere in the atrium but hidden out of sight.” Ammonia turned and scanned the room, she pointed to a small cupboard in a far corner, “In there will do; then go get your own sword and knife and four real swords, leave them in the corridor leading to the kitchen. I don’t want any of my guests finding them and killing each other by accident.”

“Yes Domina,” Buffy realised that she was obviously going to have to fight and probably kill something or someone for the entertainment of the guests; so she’d killed men and things in the arena (she’d lost count how many exactly, but it was a lot), but doing it in the place were she lived made it feel more personal somehow.

“Now run along,” Ammonia made a dismissive gesture with her hand, “and if you see that lazy rogue, Lurcio on your travels send him to see me, would you?”

“Yes Domina,” Buffy turned away from Ammonia and hurried across the room and down the passage that led to the kitchens.

Not finding Lurcio anywhere, Buffy went outside, across the courtyard and over to the armoury. Lifting up a cobblestone next to the door she picked up the simple iron key and placed it in the large padlock that secured the armoury and opened the door. Sorting through the wooden practice swords, Buffy remembered her time at the Batiatus Gladiator School with something approaching affection. At the school she’d not had to fight as part of the entertainment for a party. Normally she’d fought in the arena for prize money, she’d not make one dupondius however many people or things she killed tonight.

Picking up a real sword, Buffy examined the blade and visualised thrusting it into some demon’s belly; she imagined the hot blood gushing over her hand and over her body, Buffy smiled, after all they said blood was good for the complexion. However they also said that semen was good for the complexion too, Buffy frowned; to be honest she didn’t really believe either of these folk-tales, but on the other hand, she hadn’t had a zit in ages.

Taking the swords into the building and hiding them away as she’d been told, Buffy watched as slaves hurried to make the house ready for the orgy. No one seemed to notice her standing in the corner of the room, Lady Ammonia and Lurcio were nowhere in sight. Something she’d learnt from being part of a household was; if someone saw you standing around doing nothing they’d give you something to do. If on the other hand you were nowhere to be seen, everyone would just assume that someone else had given you some work to do and not give you a second thought. With this in mind, Buffy went up to her room collected her gladiatrix gear and then headed out into the garden at the back of the villa, no one would be there at this time of day particularly with all the preparations for the party going on.

Moments later, Buffy found herself out in the grounds sitting on the grass next to the pool and fountain that formed the centre piece of the garden, she liked to come out here and clean her gear. No one could see her from the house and normally she could work for hours undisturbed, but not, it seemed, today.

“Dupondius for them,” a hand appeared in front of her face holding a small bronze coin; Buffy hadn’t heard anyone approach over the sound of the nearby fountain and with her mind being lost in her work.

“Sorry, Dominus!” Buffy turned to see Nausius Sextus, Ammonia’s eighteen year old son, “I was just cleaning my armour,” Buffy’s held up her arm guard and the rag she was using to clean it with.

“Here,” Nausius pressed the coin into her hand, “I won’t tell my mother you were hiding out here,” he smiled at her, “tell the truth I’m hiding myself, the house is far too noisy for me to get any work done.”

Nausius had pretensions of being a poet and a playwright, the trouble was he wasn’t very good at it. He was, however, the only member of the family that truly liked Buffy as a person. This was probably due to Buffy being the only person who’d sit and listen to him recite his odes to this and that. He was so unlike his younger sister that Buffy suspected they had different fathers. The little whore, Erotica Sextus (so chaste, but so easily caught) had such a procession of lovers beating a path to her bed, that Buffy often wondered why the girl wasn’t continuously pregnant.

“Here,” Nausius sat down on a marble bench and patted the stone seat beside him, “sit down beside me and I’ll read you my latest poem.”

“Okay,” Smiling Buffy sat down next to the boy; she called him a boy, but he was in fact older than she was, she just felt a lot older than her years these days, “what’s this one about?”

“Well,” Nausius began earnestly, “I’d been tossing and turning all night and I couldn’t sleep, so I got up early and took a walk around the market in the square.”

Nodding Buffy smiled, by early Nausius meant about the same time she and Lurcio had come back from their shopping trip.

“It was then that I saw her…” Nausius gazed off into the middle distance.

“Who?” Buffy prompted.

“A vision, the goddess Venus herself, the most perfect woman in all the world!” Nausius gasped.

“Another one?” Buffy asked incredulously, this had to be the forth or fifth ‘most perfect woman in all the world’ that he’d seen this month!

“No,” Nausius shook his head so hard the Buffy thought it might fall off, “I know what you’re thinking, but this is truly the one!”

“Yeah, okay, she’s totally ‘the one’, so,” Buffy couldn’t help feeling sorry for Nausius, the one good soul in this dysfunctional family was a complete loser, “what’s her name, what does she look like?”

So often Nausius would fall madly in love with some girl he’d caught a glimpse of in the street, he’d never find out her name, often he wouldn’t even get a proper look at her.

“Let me see,” Nausius thought for a moment and turned to face Buffy his hands clasped together in his lap, “she’s about your height or a little taller, she has long flowing dark hair, the moist beautiful blue eyes that you’ve ever seen, breasts like milk white…” Nausius frowned as he tried to think what to compare the girl’s breasts to, but he came up empty. “Well,” he shrugged not being able to think of anything, “milk white whatever’s,” Buffy giggled quietly at this point, “I’ll think of something later but she had legs that seemed to go all the way up to the heavens above…”

“And you saw all this because she was naked?” Buffy asked bringing the conversation back down to earth.

“No!” Nausius frowned, “You know Trix, you have no poetry in your soul, this was what I imagined, actually she was very well and properly dressed. She was with an attractive, pregnant woman I think this beauty must be her maid or something,” Nausius’ tongue was beginning to run away with itself, any moment now he’d trip over it, “as I was saying this goddess, vision of loveliness must have a rich mistress because her slave collar was made of silver!”

“Wow!” Buffy’s hand went up to her own bronze collar as she added to herself, I bet it doesn’t have an obedience spell on it either. “So,” Buffy started to recap, “we have this amazing, vision of loveliness, where does she live and I’m sure I’ve asked you this before, her name?”

“Oh, I asked around,” Nausius explained, “they’ve taken a small villa a few doors down from this very house! They moved in today with a whole bevy of beautiful girls, of course none of them can hold a lamp to my goddess.”

“Uh-huh,” Buffy nodded her head slowly, she thought she could see what was going on here.

The houses a little further down the street from the Sextus villa while not being exactly slums weren’t the sort of places that people of quality would chose to live in. It would appear that the young dominus had either fallen for the maid of a young noble woman who was down on her luck and looking for a husband, or, a high class hooker; Buffy was putting her money on ‘high class hooker’. Only one slave? A girl of quality would have a dozen at least and guards, she had to be up to no good. Plus there were all these other girls Nausius had mentioned; obviously a brothel. As Buffy particularly liked Nausius she tried to keep an eye on him to make sure he didn’t get himself hurt when he fell in love like this.

“You still haven’t told me her name,” Buffy reminded the young man.

“Cordelia…” Nausius sighed as his eyes glazed over and he gazed off into the distance with a silly grin on his face.

“Hey!” Buffy had known a ‘Cordelia’ at school, they’d not got on; she nudged Nausius with her elbow, “Earth to Dominus Nausius.”

“Sorry?” Nausius shook his head to clear it of visions of the lovely Cordelia as he slowly floated back down to earth.

“The poem?” Buffy asked.

“Oh yes!” Nausius searched for the wax writing tablet that hung from the belt around his waist; he unclipped it and opened it out, after turning it the right way up he took a deep breath and began to read. “Ode to the Fair Cordelia…”

“That’s a good start,” Buffy interrupted only to get a cross look from the young man beside her, she sniggered behind her hand, “sorry Dominus.”

“Right, where was I…” Nausius looked at his tablet again, “Ode to the Fair Cordelia…”

“You’ve done that bit,” Buffy pointed out helpfully.

“Trix!” Nausius cried out in frustration, he slapped Buffy on her thigh, “anyone would think you don’t want to hear my poem.”

“Ow!” Buffy rubbed her leg, he’d not really hit her hard but it had stung a little, “I’m sorry Dominus,” she giggled, “I’ll be quiet now…”

Nausius opened his mouth to speak as he eyed Buffy suspiciously, when he was sure she wasn’t going to interrupt him again, he took a deep breath and began to read.

_Ode to the Fair Cordelia.  
I love her face,   
That bosom fair,  
That skin without a ripple.  
But most of all,  
I love to lie,  
With my lips,  
Upon her…shoulder?_

“You know,” Nausius stared wistfully at his writing tablet, “as hard as I try I can’t think of a rhyme for _ripple_.”

“You must be the only one who can’t,” Buffy said under her breath; other than that the poem hadn’t been that bad, one of his best, which wasn’t saying a lot, but he was improving. Buffy decided to give praise where it was due; “That was really very good Dominus,” Buffy gave a quick, one-girl round of applause, “one of your best and I really mean that.”

“You do?” Nausius smiled into Buffy’s eyes.

“Sure,” Buffy smiled before adding, “hey!” Buffy’s eyes dropped down to look at Nausius’ lap, “Looks like you’ve got a real hard-on for this girl.”

“I have?” Nausius’ eyes followed Buffy’s down to his lap, “Oh! I have,” he admitted bashfully.

“You want I should deal with that?” Buffy asked matter-of-factly.

“Oh I couldn’t impose, after all, you’re my mother’s slave.” Nausius looked away as he turned a pretty shade of pink from embarrassment.

“Oh it’s no bother,” Buffy got up and stood in front of him, “and you did give me that coin earlier, it’s only right I should give you something back.”

“Well,” Nausius replied uncertainly, “if you really don’t mind…”

“Sure, it’s no bother,” Buffy knelt on the path in front of Nausius and started to pull his tunic and loincloth aside so she could get at his penis, “now hold on tight,” Buffy brought her lips closer to the young man’s phallus, “and try not to _arrive_ straight away like you did last time, okay?”

Taking Nausius’ manhood into her mouth, Buffy sighed, as long as she had his cock in her mouth he wouldn’t be thinking of this Cordelia bitch. Hopefully if she distracted him enough he’d lose interest in the girl. Then he wouldn’t get his heart broken when he found out she was nothing but a scheming little whore after his money. No way did she want to live through another two weeks of Nausius Sextus moping around the house with a broken heart. Closing her throat just in time, Buffy felt Nausius ejaculate into her mouth. Moments later after releasing her hold on his penis she swallowed just like Eos had taught her; for some reason guys seemed to like it when she did that, Caius certainly had.

“There you go,” Buffy wiped around her mouth with the back of her hand, “that was much better, you lasted almost twice as long as last time.”

“Yes I did, didn’t I,” gasped Nausius proudly as Buffy rearranged his clothes for him, “here,” he held out another coin towards Buffy, “for you.”

“Hey look,” Buffy frowned, “I’m not a hooker y’know?”

“Oh! Yes I know,” Nausius looked worried thinking he’d upset his friend, “let’s say it’s a gift from one friend to another.”

“Well in that case,” Buffy took the coin and her eyes grew wide at the sight of the silver denarius, “WOW!” Buffy gasped although she had quite a bit of money it was all being held for her by Lady Fidelia (Ammonia didn’t like Buffy to have too much money lying around the house), Buffy still needed some cash on hand so she could buy little luxuries for herself. “That’s like…” it was Buffy’s turn to be lost for words, “…I mean, y’know anytime you want to, you know, just call and I’ll be there!”

0=0=0=0

**Dawn and Cordelia’s villa, just down the street from the Sextus Family Villa.**

“Take out those old bones and the rest of that trash,” Cordelia ordered as dancing girls scurried around her as they cleaned up the villa, “or you won’t get your pocket money.”

Although the dancing girls were slaves, Dawn and Cordelia had decided from the start that they should be paid at least pocket money, so the girls could buy themselves little treats.

“If you don't scrub that kitchen floor like you mean it, Harmonia,” Cordelia walked into the kitchen where a girl knelt scrubbing the floor, “You won’t be picked for the team.”

The girl, Harmonia renewed her scrubbing with a will, none of the girls wanted to miss out on being picked for the team. At the end of a performance the crowd invariably threw coins and if you weren’t there to pick them up someone else would get them.

“Just finish cleaning up those rooms,” Cordy walked out of the kitchen and over to where two other girls, Echo and the Gaulish girl, Tegan were sweeping out the bedchambers the girls would be using, “Let's see that dust fly with that broom, get all this garbage out of sight,” Cordelia pointed to a pile of rubbish lying against a pillar, “Or you won't be going out on Saturday night.”

Being of the opinion that a happy slave was a hard working slave, Dawn and Cordelia gave the dancing girls a lot of freedom. Not only did they get paid but they were also allowed to go out unsupervised one night a week. However, they also had to obey some strict rules, like; not getting so drunk that they couldn’t get themselves home. They also had to actually be home by midnight and most importantly; under no circumstances were they to get themselves pregnant.

So far the girls had obeyed their Domina’s and Coach’s rules, but both Cordelia and Dawn new it was only a matter of time before one of their girls slipped up and fell pregnant. What they’d do then they didn’t know and had sort of put that problem off until it happened.

“Aspesia, Vita, Tanis,” Cordelia called as she stood in the middle of the room, her hands on her hips, “collect up all the spare tunics and start washing them and when you finish doing that, bring in the dog and put out the cat.”

”But, Coach,” Aspesia frowned, “we haven’t got a dog or a cat.”

“Good point,” Cordelia conceded before she turned around looking for a girl with nothing to do. “Priscilla!” She called, “Stop skulking behind that pillar and come here.”

“Yes, Coach,” the girl ran over to where Cordy was standing.

“Take Lavina with you and go find us a dog and a cat,” Cordelia ordered.

“Yes Coach,” Priscilla nodded.

“And make sure the cat’s a good mouser and the dog’s a good ratter, okay?”

“Yes Coach,” Chorused Pricilla and Lavina, before they turned and ran for the door.

“Good,” Cordelia sighed and allowed herself a smile; things seemed to be coming together nicely, by the end of the day the villa might be habitable for civilised people.

“How’s it going?” Dawn asked from behind Cordelia.

“Great,” Cordelia turned and gave her friend a bright smile, “fancy a walk up to the market?”

“Sure,” Dawn agreed; the market was only a few moments walk up the street, “what are you going to buy?”

“Nothing much but we need some food,” Cordelia pointed out, “we’ve no cook and there’s nothing in the larder.”

“Good point,” Dawn agreed with a nod before adding, “Hey! Did you see?”

“See what?” Cordelia linked her arm through Dawn’s as they walked towards the main door.

“When we passed through the market earlier,” Dawn continued, “I swear I saw bananas for sale!”

“No way!” Cordelia, who loved bananas, gasped as they headed up the street together.

0=0=0=0

**Author’s Notes:** I’m not responsible for the ‘poetry’! Also the last section with Cordy directing the housework is a sort of xover with the song ‘Yackety-yak (Don’t talk back)!’ 


	5. Chapter 5

5.

**That night at the Sextus family orgy.**

The orgy had already been going for a couple of hours; there’d been the usual fire eater, novelty juggler and erotic dance troupe to get everyone in the mood. All the sex had begun shortly afterwards as the wine had started to take effect. Buffy was safely out of the way hidden in the shadows in the corner of the room watching with interest what was going on around her.

0=0=0=0

“Ah! Proconsul,” Ammonia hurried over to greet her most important guest as he entered the atrium, “how nice of you to come.”

“My pleasure, Lady Ammonia,” Lecherous looked around, being fashionably late he’d avoided the tedious fire eater, novelty jugglers and erotic dance troupe, he smiled down at Ammonia, “I wouldn’t miss one of your parties for the world.”

The truth was he couldn’t miss the opportunity of searching the Sextus’ villa for the list of conspirators that Crixus had so carelessly lost.

“And this strong, handsome man is?” Ammonia turned her attention from Lecherous to the younger man at his side.

“May I present,” Lecherous gestured to his companion, “Tribune Gannicus Philippus Crixus; he’s to be in charge of the First Citizen’s security during his visit.”

“So,” Ammonia gestured for Lecherous and Crixus to follow her further into the room, “the rumours are true, the First Citizen _is_ going to visit our fair city.”

“Indeed, dear Lady,” Lecherous smiled and nodded, “at the end of the month.”

“Well,” Ammonia smiled, exposing sharp white teeth, “we’ll all have to try to make his visit as enjoyable as possible…a games perhaps?”

“Erm, I have it on good authority,” Lecherous let his voice drop so no one would overhear, “that the First Citizen is no great admirer of the games.”

“Oh,” Ammonia sighed with disappointment, “what a pity.” However her disappointment didn’t last for long, “But,” her face brightened as she rubbed the proconsul lightly on the arm with her breast, “I believe you are, so you’ll especially appreciate the little entertainment I’ve arranged, now if you’ll excuse me?”

“Of course, dear lady,” Lecherous nodded to his hostess and watched her as she walked away and started to organise the household slaves. He turned to Crixus who was admiring one of the orgy-girls, “Crixus!”

“What?” Crixus dragged his eyes away from the girl’s breasts and gave Lecherous his full attention.

“Keep your mind on the job in hand,” Lecherous ordered, “you’re here to find the scroll not enjoy yourself.”

“Of course, Sir,” Crixus nodded his head while casting the orgy-girl a longing look.

“Now it seems,” Lecherous continued, “we’ve arrived at a fortuitous moment, while everyone is distracted by this entertainment you can sneak off and start searching.”

“Right you are, sir,” Crixus nodded his head, but didn’t sound too enthusiastic; “I’ll start looking straight away.”

“Not yet, fool!” Lecherous snapped, “Wait until this entertainment starts, do you want everyone to see what you’re doing?”

0=0=0=0

“I wonder what ‘her Ladyship’ wants now?” Buffy muttered to herself a she saw her mistress hurrying towards her.

“Come along Trix,” Ammonia smiled as she approached Buffy, “what are you doing skulking in the corner when there’s work to be done?”

“Sorry, Domina,” Buffy didn’t sound sorry in the slightest, “but apart from telling me to be ‘nice’ to the guests you didn’t exactly tell me what I was supposed to be doing.”

“Did I not?,” Ammonia frowned; Buffy shook her head, “It must have slipped my mind in all the rush of getting things ready, sorry dear,” Ammonia patted Buffy on her arm, “Now take off your dress and bring those practice swords over to the middle of the room.”

“Yes Domina,” Buffy replied as she started to pull her dress off over her head, all the time wondering what Ammonia had got planned.

“And do be quick about it,” Ammonia turned and walked back to the centre of the room where she clapped her hands loudly to get everybody’s attention.

“The things I do to earn a crust,” Buffy mumbled as she opened the cupboard door and retrieved the practice swords.

0=0=0=0

“May I have your attention!?” Ammonia called; slowly everybody stopped doing whoever they were doing and turned to face their host. “As some of you know I was lucky enough to come into possession of a gladiatrix recently,” Ammonia watched her audience as they slowly became more interested in what she had to say. “Now for the first part of my special entertainment, I challenge any gentleman who thinks he’s able to win against my gladiatrix to combat.”

There were interested mutterings from around the room, as young and not so young men got up to see who they’d be facing.

“As a further incentive,” Ammonia smiled, “any gentleman who bests my gladiatrix gets this purse,” Ammonia held up a purse of coins, “which he can count as my girl sucks his cock! Combat will be using wooden practice swords…”

“What if someone loses?” Came a voice from the crowd.

“If a gentleman should lose…” Ammonia smiled knowingly, “...I’m sure I can think of some suitable forfeit…”

The room was filled with knowing laughter as the first challengers sorted themselves out into something resembling a queue.

Pushing her way through the crowd, Buffy really wished that people (both men and women) would keep their hands to themselves; she felt hands slide over her naked body as the audience took the opportunity to touch her. Although Lady Ammonia was a kind woman she was, as has already been stated, a woman of her times; she saw absolutely nothing wrong with having Buffy fight these men and tell them that part of the prize for winning was for Buffy to perform oral sex on them. Not that the oral sex was going to happen, none of the men at the orgy (and certainly none of the women) had a snowball’s chance in hell of beating her.

“Whatever,” Buffy sighed quietly as she came up to where Ammonia was standing, she looked at the line of challengers that had formed and then looked at her mistress and asked quietly “I’ve got to fight all of them?”

“Yes,” Ammonia whispered, “you’re always complaining that you don’t get the chance to practice enough, well,” Ammonia gestured to the line of would be warriors, “there you are.”

“Okay,” Buffy shrugged, “thanks,” choosing a sword before stepping out onto the cleared area Buffy doubted that any of her opponents could make her raise a sweat.

“Don’t forget, Trix,” Ammonia whispered in Buffy’s ear, “you’ll have to suck the winner.”

“Yeah, like that’s ever going to happen,” Buffy replied.

“Jolly good then,” Ammonia smiled, “now be a good girl and beat the crap out of them!”

The first challenger stepped forward, wooden sword in hand. Looking the guy up and down Buffy quickly gauged her opponent. Young, fit and by the way he held his sword he’d had at least some training. Her eyes fell to his feet and she gave a quick smile; her opponent was wearing sandals which meant he’d likely slip on the marble floor, Buffy on the other hand was bare footed, she was also bare everything else, but at least she’d keep her footing.

The young man lunged at Buffy thinking to catch her unawares with a quick attack. With almost contemptuous ease, she parried his attack before rapping her opponent across the knuckles making him drop his sword. Before the young man even realised what had happened, the tip of Buffy’s sword was poking him in the Adams Apple. Wisely the young man raised two fingers in token of surrender and stepped away from the woman who’d just beaten him. Lady ammonia would be collecting his ‘forfeit’ later that night in person.

After much good natured laughter another man came forward to face Buffy. This time her opponent fained several attacks before committing himself to an attack aimed at Buffy’s legs. Jumping nimbly out of the way, Buffy struck out catching the man with the edge of her sword across the elbow. The man’s sword fell from his numbed hand as he looked up at Buffy in amazement. Like his predecessor the man raised two fingers in surrender and retreated back to the safety of the crowd. Another man who now owed Buffy’s mistress a forfeit, Lady Ammonia was certainly going to be busy over the next few days if Buffy kept winning.

0=0=0=0

“By the Gods!” Gasped Tribune Crixus his eyes riveted to the little arena as the gladiatrix defeated challenger after challenger.

“What?” Lecherous asked distractedly; he was lying on a couch not really watching the combat while an orgy-girl worked conscientiously in his lap.

“It’s her!” Crixus pointed to where Buffy defeated yet another challenger.

“Who?” Lecherous pushed the girl to one side so he could speak to Crixus without distraction, “What are you talking about?”

“The slave girl,” Crixus tried to explain.

“What slave girl?” Lecherous was starting to sound impatient.

“The one who stole the scroll,” Crixus pointed once again to where Buffy was standing over her latest victim.

“What about her?” Lecherous eyed the pretty orgy-girl longingly.

“That’s her…” Crixus pointed harder at Buffy.

“Who?” Lecherous pulled the orgy girl closer so she wouldn’t get any ideas about leaving.

“There in the ring with the sword,” Crixus explained at last, “she’s the slave-girl who stole the scroll!”

“Perfect!” Lecherous exclaimed, “all you have to do is challenge her, win, fuck her brains out and get her to tell you where she’s put the scroll…”

“What?” Crixus looked down at his patron and wondered if he hadn’t gone completely mad; hadn’t he been watching? The little whore had just beaten eight good men in a row!

“Get on with it,” Lecherous waved Crixus away as he pulled the orgy-girl more firmly into his arms and started to give her all the attention she deserved.

0=0=0=0

With his heart feeling like a stone, Crixus dragged himself towards the cleared area where the gladiatrix waited sword in hand for someone else to dare challenge her.

“Come along, gentlemen,” Ammonia called in a slightly disappointed voice, “are there no more brave sons of Rome to face my gladiatrix?”

Buffy stood next to her mistress not even breathing heavily, she’d defeated eight men in a row and as predicted they’d not made her sweat. Used to fighting well trained gladiators or monsters, ordinary men weren’t much of a challenge to her.

“Here!” Called a voice from the crowd.

Turning towards the voice’s owner, Buffy’s eyes grew narrow as she recognised the man who was coming towards her; she couldn’t believe her luck. It was the swine from the market who’d used his whip on her. Smiling slowly Buffy decided she was going to have fun with this one.

0=0=0=0

Instead of simply disarming him as she had with all the others Buffy parried Crixus’ attacks with insolent ease. Each attack launched by the man was more frantic than the last and then, to add insult to injury, she’d whack him with the flat of her blade on some tender spot before standing back and letting him come at her again. He of course could have just backed off and admitted defeat, but the Tribune’s Roman pride wouldn’t let him do that, so he had to endure the blows of the gladiatrix stoically and hope she’d slip up and disarm him so he could surrender honourably.

0=0=0=0

“That’s enough!” Ammonia hissed into Buffy’s ear as she stood back to watch the battered and bruised man stumble away from her. “What did he do to you? Rape your grandmother or something?” Ammonia glanced to where Tribune Crixus swayed in the breeze only half conscious of what was happening. “Now please finish this so I can get on with the rest of the show!”

“There’s more?” Buffy asked; whatever, she’d had her fun now; she might as well finish him off.

Stepping forward, Buffy beat down the weak thrust that was directed at her chest and rammed the point of her sword into the officer’s solar-plexus. His eyes and mouth formed three perfect o’s as the pain and the inability to breathe hit him all at once. Gasping for air with lungs that wouldn’t work, Crixus collapsed to the floor amid concerned mutterings from the audience.

“Take him away,” Ammonia gestured to a couple of the household slaves, “Ladies and gentlemen,” Ammonia called, “while Tribune Crixus is regaining his breath we’ll make ready for the last part of our entertainment!” 

Turning and nodding to another slave, Ammonia watched as he hurried off in obedience to his mistress’ unspoken order. Standing beside Ammonia, Buffy found her wooden sword taken from her hand while another slave gave her the real sword and knife. Taking the weapons, Buffy tested their weight and balance, satisfied that they hadn’t been tampered with, she watched as workmen appeared and started to push back the crowd so they could lower heavy nets from the ceiling. Young boys scattered sand onto the floor, obviously to prevent the fighters from slipping on the blood that was about to be spilt.

Once all these preparations were made, Ammonia gestured for Buffy to climb into the netted off area. Glancing at her mistress, Buffy carefully climbed through a hole in the netting and stood waiting for whatever she was going to have to face; she didn’t have to wait long. No sooner had she climbed into the netted off arena, Buffy saw several men push a large iron barred cage out of the darkness at the back of the room and up against the netting. A section of net was pulled aside and the front of the cage was opened and out stepped the demon.

Gasps of shock and astonishment came from the throats of the guests as the demon stepped into view. Lamp light reflected from his smooth, ebony skin, there were gasps of appreciation from several women as they caught a glimpse of the demon’s eighteen inch phallus. Everyone’s attention was distracted as a slave threw the four swords Buffy had taken from the armoury earlier into the arena. The demon crouched down and picked them up, one in each of its four arms. Hefting his weapons in his hands the demon turned to face Buffy, its penis started to go hard as soon as its eyes fell upon her naked body.

“Lust Demon?” Buffy asked; the extra long phallus and the four arms were a bit of a give away, but Buffy thought she’d better check.

“The same,” the demon smiled and bowed his horned head with its mass of pure white hair towards Buffy, “I’m guessing you must be the venetrix and not some terrified slave girl for me to fuck to death?”

“That’s me,” Buffy replied with a shrug, “the venetrix part I mean; you know I’m gonna have to kill you, right?”

“You can try,” smiled the demon as all four of his swords came up into guard position.

“Okay,” Buffy crouched down as she pointed her own weapons at the demon, “let’s give them a fight to remember!”

“Of course!” Cried the demon as it sprang towards Buffy and started to rain blows down upon her.

The demon was about seven feet tall so it could outreach Buffy easily, with this in mind she closed with the demon as she fended off his barrage of sword blows. There was nowhere for her to back off to anyway, so she might as well get up close and personal. Although the demon had four arms, getting in close actually helped negate some of his advantages. Buffy also knew the closer she got to the demon; the more blood would drain to the demon’s penis and away from his brain making him slower and hopefully clumsier.

“OW!” Buffy cried out as one of the demon’s swords caught her on the shoulder drawing blood, “Why you!”

Buffy lashed out, dummying with her sword while bringing up her trusty dagger and opening a long, deep cut in the demon’s left lower arm. Crying out in pain the demon staggered back from his diminutive foe and dropped the sword he’d been holding in his injured hand. Quick to seize any advantage, Buffy pressed her attack cutting the demon several time on the body, thighs and arms.

Stepping back for a breather, Buffy checked out the damage she’d caused. Watching as dark red, almost black blood trickled from the demon’s wounds; Buffy reasoned she’d probably slowed the monster down significantly. However, much to her surprise the demon didn’t seem to agree with her assessment. He sprang at her with a renewed series of attacks. This time, however, he was careful to prevent Buffy from closing with him preferring to try and keep her at arms length.

“So that’s how you wanna play, is it?” Buffy muttered under her breath, “Okay, let’s see how you deal with this!”

Instead of going for the demon’s body, Buffy concentrated on disarming the demon…literally. Dodging between the demon’s flashing blades, Buffy hacked at one of his limbs, she watched as one of the demon’s arms cartwheeled across the arena, still clutching its sword as it got entangled up in the netting. Blood sprayed through the air as guests cried out in appreciation and they were splattered with the demon’s blood.

Stumbling away from Buffy the demon looked down in horror at the stump of his arm that Buffy had severed half way between wrist and elbow. The demon only had two usable arms left now; upper left and lower right. Its body was covered in lesser wounds and their accumulative effect was slowly wearing him down. Smiling down at the little venetrix he realised that his time had come, saying a last prayer to his hellish patrons. The lust demon launched one last desperate attack on the venetrix.

Beating down the demon’s desperate blows, Buffy stood her ground and watched as the demon’s attacks got weaker and weaker. The demon had lost so much blood now that its penis had shrunk to a mere twelve inches, each cut and thrust with its two remaining weapons became slower and slower and less well directed as exhaustion and blood loss finally took its toll. Eventually, Buffy knocked the swords from the demon’s weakened hands. Stabbing it in the belly she stood back as the monster fell to its knees and knelt in helpless supplication before her.

Pulling back her sword arm, Buffy sent her blade singing through the air to cut into the demons thickly muscled neck to make a sound like an axe cutting into a tree. Freeing her blade from the demon’s neck, she brought back her arm for another blow as the demon, more dead than alive swayed in front of her. This time when she brought the blade down it sliced cleanly through the remaining bone and muscle to send the demon’s head rolling slowly across the floor. Stepping out of the way Buffy watched as the lust demon’s body fell forward onto the ground and blood oozed from its neck to soak into the sand.

It was only after the demon was dead that Buffy became aware of the cheers and applause of her audience. Looking around she saw all the eager, happy, lustful, blood flecked faces that peered into the little arena through the netting. The cries of bloodlust echoed in her head as their cheers bounced from the walls and beat on her ears. It was about then that Buffy realised what she’d become; she was nothing but a killing machine to be used until she herself was killed. However, the most frightening thing about this realisation was that she liked it; she liked the sight and smell of blood. She revelled in the adulation of her audience and she had become the one thing she’d promised herself she would never become when she’d first learnt she was the slayer; she’d become a cold blooded killer.

0=0=0=0


	6. Chapter 6

6.

**The House of Aestatis.**

Leaning out of the window next to the bed she shared with Cordelia, Dawn looked out into the darkened courtyard. All the girl’s were safely in their beds, or at least lying on their blankets, beds for the girls were still something on the ‘to get’ list. They’d all had a hard day cleaning and tidying the villa and tomorrow would probably be just as hard. Not for her of course; she was the domina and seven months pregnant so there was no hard work for her. Instead she worked her fingers to the bone and wore out her eyes making endless lists of things that they needed and when she wasn’t doing that she was trying to make the household accounts balance. In the distance she could hear a dog barking in the night, closer to hand she could hear cheering and laughter coming from the big villa at the end of the street.

“What’s all that noise?” Cordelia asked tiredly as she joined Dawn in looking out the window.

“Oh,” Dawn sighed, “it’s the people up the street; I think they’re having an orgy or something.”

The two young women listened for a moment as the sound of people’s voices faded slightly.

“No orgies for us,” Cordelia pointed out wistfully as she remembered the teen-parties that she’d held at home when her parents were away.

“Do you think Buffy’s there?” Dawn asked.

“Your sister?” Cordelia grinned, her white teeth flashing in the darkness, “No way! Hey, did I ever tell you what happened when we went to that party at the frat-house?”

“No?” Dawn looked at her friend hoping for some diversion, she noticed the grin fade slowly from Cordelia’s face.

“Yeah, like, we both got totally drugged and then almost sacrificed to some snake demon thing,” Cordelia sighed, before adding, “It wasn’t that much fun.”

“Oh,” Dawn replied sadly, that sounded like the stuff that happened to her sister alright, “do you think we’ll ever find her,” Dawn paused for a moment, “Buffy, I mean.”

“Yeah, bound to,” Cordelia tried to sound more confident than she felt, “I mean Pompeii isn’t that big and someone like your sister’s gonna stand out like a…well, a very short, violent person!”

“Hope so,” Dawn couldn’t help but feel that Buffy was close by and in danger; the longer it took to find her the more danger she thought Buffy would be in.

“Come-on,” Cordelia laid her hand gently on Dawn’s shoulder, “back to bed, sounds like the orgy’s over.”

“Yeah okay,” Dawn turned reluctantly from the window wondering all the time what Buffy was doing right now.

0=0=0=0

**The House of Sextus.**

Climbing through the netting, Buffy stood for a moment as she watched the slaves remove the body of the lust demon and start to clear up the bloody sand. Turning her eyes back onto the crowd she saw that they’d already forgotten about her and had gone back to the serious business of screwing, even Ammonia appeared to have dismissed Buffy from her mind. Taking advantage of the moment, Buffy made her way between the heaving, writhing bodies and headed towards the corridor that lead down to the kitchen. 

“Trix!” The sound of a familiar female voice came from behind her; turning around quickly, a wide grin spread across Buffy’s face.

“Eos!” Buffy hugged the girl warmly before standing back and holding her at arms length, “Where the Hades have you been?”

“Sorry,” the young Greek girl hung her head slightly, “but I got stuck out at Lady Fidelia’s villa last night and then today I had to help Ennius move in.”

“Ennius,” Buffy frowned until a picture of the man came to her mind, “you mean Fidelia’s guard captain and the man you’ve got the hots for!”

“That’s him,” Eos admitted with a grin.

“Oh,” Buffy smiled as she put her arm around Eos’ waist and started to lead her towards the kitchen and away from the orgy, Buffy glanced at the tunic Eos was almost wearing, it was very short and exposed her left breast, “You’ve been enjoying the party?”

“Yes,” Eos caught Buffy’s slightly disapproving look, “and why not? I’m a freedwoman now, I can do what I want.”

“I seem to remember,” Buffy pointed out, “that it didn’t matter whether you were free or slave, if there was sex to be had, there you where!”

“You’re only jealous,” Eos pointed out.

“Damn straight, I am,” Buffy admitted.

“Oh, you’re bleeding!” Eos pointed out as she noticed the blood trickling down Buffy’s back from the wound on her shoulder.

“Yeah?” Buffy turned her head to try and see how bad it was; she’d not really noticed the wound until Eos had mentioned it.

“It needs to be cleaned or it’ll start to fester,” Eos pointed out with concern, “let’s get down into the kitchen and I’ll get you cleaned up.”

Leading the way down into the kitchen the two young women found it deserted except for Scrubba who was sleeping in the corner of the room instead of up in her cell.

“So,” Buffy sighed as she sat down on the edge of a table, “why’d Lady Fidelia send her guard captain down here?”

“She thought he could help with your training,” Eos called out as she found some clean rags and a clean sponge.

“Oh, that’s good of her,” Buffy nodded, “it’ll be good to spar against someone who can handle a sword.”

Sextus Ennius had just been promoted from Optio to Centurion when a spear thrust to his leg had cut off a promising military career. Normally the wound didn’t bother him, but if he’d been on his feet for a while or marching the stiffness in his leg would increase until he had a pronounced limp. However, he was still an expert swordsman and totally loyal to his mistress.

After cleaning Buffy’s wound and sponging the demon’s blood from the rest of her body, Eos examined the cut closely.

“It’ll need a stitch or three,” Eos announced, “Do you still have the needle and thread I gave you upstairs?”

“Yeah,” Buffy nodded as she jumped down from the table.

“Well,” Eos held out his hand to steady Buffy, “lets take a couple of lamps and I’ll stitch you up.”

“Thanks Eos,” Buffy held on to the teenager’s hand, “you’re a star, I really missed having you around today.”

“Why?” Eos slipped her arm around Buffy’s waist again as they made their way upstairs to the slave’s quarters.

“Oh,” Buffy sighed as she leaned into the girl, “I just did.”

They walked along the corridor until they came to Buffy’s cell door, standing back she let Eos precede her into the little room. 

“Lie face down on the bed,” Eos ordered as she searched out the bag of medicus gear she’d left with Buffy, “this won’t take long but it might hurt.”

Watching Buffy out to the corner of her eye, Eos searched through the bag’s contents until she came up with the needles and thread. Threading the sharpest needle she could find Eos studied her friend’s naked body for a moment. Her eyes ran over her honey coloured skin and sun bleached, blonde hair, the result of long hours spent practising in the sun. She remembered how Buffy’s nipples had hardened as she’d washed the blood from off her breasts, how she’d wanted to cup and caress those firm orbs and tease her nipples with her thumb and fingers, but she’d held back. Sitting down on the edge of the bed next to Buffy she held the cut closed with her thumb and forefinger of her left hand while she readied the needle and thread in her right.

“This is gonna hurt,” Eos warned Buffy just before she pierced her skin with the needle for the first stitch.

“Ow!” Buffy cried but managed to hold still as the thread pulled on her skin.

“There,” Eos quickly tied off the first stitch and started on the second, “not long now,” she reassured her friend, “I think we can get away with just the three.”

Quickly closing up the wound, Eos tied off the last stitch and placed a piece of cloth lightly over the cut. Her past experience with treating Buffy’s wounds told her that by tomorrow night she’d be able to remove the stitches. By the end of the next day the wound would be healed and then over the next few weeks the scar would fade away to nothing.

“We’ll bandage that up tomorrow,” Eos explained as she put away the needle and the remains of the thread, “until then I’ll leave it open to the air.”

“Thanks Eos,” Buffy sat up with her legs over the side of her bed.

“Not a problem,” Eos placed Buffy’s little bag of first aid things on the window sill, “now what is a problem,” Eos pointed out with a crocked smile, “is the amount of tension in that body of yours. Looks like I’m going to spend all day massaging it out of you tomorrow, but in the meantime,” Eos grinned impishly in the flickering lamp like, “you want a _special_ massage?”

“By the gods,” Buffy sighed with relief, “I though you’d never ask!”

Quickly pushing back her bed covers, Buffy climbed into bed as Eos pulled off her tunic and then climbed into bed beside her.

“Oh that’s nice,” Buffy let out a long sigh as she felt Eos’ hand on her breast and the tension start to leave her body, “I’ve been hoping you’d suggest this all day.”

Rolling Buffy onto her back, Eos kissed her friend’s lips gently.

“Well,” Eos pulled away from Buffy’s soft inviting lips for a moment, “I better make sure that it reality measures up to expectation!”

0=0=0=0

**A Necropolis, just outside Pompeii, more or less at the same time.**

The moonlight shone down on two lonely figures as they sat side by side on top of an ancient tomb. The shorter of the two figures turned to the taller and spoke.

“Mother,” Marius the Younger watched his parent’s face intently before speaking again, “while I appreciate any time we get to spend together, I feel I have to ask; why are we sitting here in the dark on top of a tomb?”

“Oh,” Faith shrugged, “y’know, I just wanted to talk to my best guy, see how ya doin’, y’know?”

“Mother,” Marius frowned, “while I understand your natural interest in my progress in life,” the teenager gestured to the cemetery, “I feel I must question your choice of venue.”

“Gods,” Faith sighed sadly, “I wish I could talk like you,” as hard as she tried Faith still sounded a little like a Rome streetwalker whenever she opened her mouth; if she tried real hard she could make herself sound like a proper merchant’s wife but she had to think about it and if something distracted her, out would come the hooker again.

Not that it really mattered of course; the upper strata of Roman society would never accept her or her husband, however rich they were. After all she’d made her money as a Gladiatrix and Venetrix in the arena; her husband had made his fortune as a slave trader. Both trades were considered the lowest of the low and that would never change. Of course there were some more open minded people like Ammonia but Faith had it on good authority that Ammonia Sextus had been a Courtesan in her youth, which was probably why she was more accepting of Faith and her husband than the rest of the upper classes.

Faith’s eldest son, Marius, on the other hand, had a good education and spoke like a proper gentleman; she was intensely proud of her boy but couldn’t help feeling that she let him down every time she opened her mouth.

“So,” Marius fiddled with the hilt of the sword his mother had insisted he carry, “what do you want to talk about?”

“Well,” Faith hesitated, she’d only really thought about the real reason she’d brought her boy out here not what they’d talk about first, “okay, how are things at school?”

“Very good, thank-you for asking mother,” Marius replied, “although I’m beginning to think I’ve learnt everything my tutors have to teach me. This is why I want to go to military school.”

By the Gods, Faith looked at her son in wonder, how he reminded her of First Citizen Octavian when he was that age, aloud she said;

“That’s sorta why I’ve brought you out here, Marius,” Faith paused as she ordered her thoughts, “there’s some stuff you need to know.”

“I know all about coitus, mother,” Marius smiled, “and where babies come from.”

“Yeah I know,” Faith nodded her head, “how is, what's her name, by the way I don’t see you together as much as I used to.”

“Aglaia?” Marius asked, “I’m still very fond of her and while she’s a very nice girl she is just a slave and while you could free her, I could never marry her.” Marius sighed sadly, “Just selling her would be cruel, I was going to ask if you could find her a husband once I leave to go to school.”

“Oh!” Even after nearly eighteen years of living in the past, Faith was still a little shocked by the idea of people as property, “Yeah, I’ll see what I can do…do you want me to…”

“No thank-you, mother,” Marius replied in a very grown-up voice, “I think it best that I tell her.”

“Yeah,” Faith nodded her head and once again felt more than a little pride at how she’d brought up her son, “it’ll break the girls’ heart for a while, but I know you’ll do it right.”

“I find your faith in me gratifying, mother,” Marius took a deep breath, “now can we talk about the real reason we’re out here?”

“Okay,” Faith sighed before adding, “remember all those stories I told you about me an’ monsters and stuff when you were little?” 

“The ones about the vampires and demons?” Marius replied.

“Yeah, those’re the ones,” Faith took a deep breath, “ya know they were all true?” Faith thought about this for a moment, “Except the one about me in the schoolgirl outfit and the guy with the bullwhip…oh and the one about the three bears.”

“Of course,” Marius stared off into the darkness for a moment, “but, I always thought the story of the three bears the most frightening, the others I guessed were true.”

“You did!?” Faith turned to look at her son in surprise.

“Of course,” Marius nodded his head firmly, “it’s all very logical and I could give you my proofs but that would be like expounding theological dogma to the temple singers so I won’t bother.”

“Yeah,” Faith’s eyebrows drew together, sometimes she lost track of what her son was talking about, “thanks.”

“I’m also guessing, from the way you’re clutching ‘Sword’,” Marius gestured to Faith’s own weapon, “that you’re expecting one, or more, of these monsters to appear and prove your point if I’d shown any reluctance to believe you.”

“Y’know,” Faith gave her son a hard look, “I sometimes miss when ya were little an’ didn’t talk all grown-up.”

“Mother,” Marius put his arm around his mother’s waist and rested his head against her shoulder, “I’ve always been very proud of you and I will always love you…however you speak. You are a very exceptional woman and I’m honoured to be your son and are these some of the cultists you told me about when I was little?”

“W-what!?” Faith looked up to see several human forms walking towards herself and her boy; they appeared to be dragging a young girl along with them. By the way the girl struggled, Faith didn’t think the cultists had brought her here to give her a kitten or a puppy, “Cultists!”

Pulling her sword, Faith jumped down from the tomb and turned to face the approaching religious maniacs, she glanced to her left as she heard Marius jump down to stand beside her, he pulled his own sword.

“Hey, what ya think…?” Faith began but was silenced by a look from her son.

“Mother,” Marius faced off against a couple of cultists that had turned to confront him, “I happen to know that you’re two months into your pregnancy. I think its my duty to not only protect you but also my unborn sibling.”

“Yeah alright,” Faith admitted, “just be careful and remember what Ennius and I taught ya, right?”

“Of course mother,” Marius dodged away from the cudgel a cultist had swung at his head, “don’t fuss so!”

Stepping towards the closest cultist Marius swung his sword and chopped off the man’s right arm at the wrist. The man screamed as he clutched at the bloody stump of his arm before staggering away into the dark. That still left the second cultist for him to deal with, this man was armed with a sword, but he’d obviously not been trained as well as Marius had because his first attack was clumsy and badly timed. Easily parrying the cultist’s attack, Marius gave ground. He might be a better swordsman than his opponent, but he couldn’t match the man for strength; luckily he’d been taught how to fight much larger and stronger enemies.

Glancing over at where his mother fought, he saw no need to worry about her safety. In the time it had taken him to put just one cultist out of action, she’d killed three and was starting in on her forth. Bring himself back to the task in hand, Marius ducked down under another clumsily aimed lunge made by the cultist, Marius cut at the man’s leg, flesh parted easily in front of his keen blade and he felt the bone splinter against his sword. The cultist screamed in agony as his leg gave way. Avoiding the man’s wildly flaying sword, Marius stepped in and slit the man’s throat. By the time he looked up again his mother was standing in the middle of a circle of five dead cultists; she was just beginning to deal with four others who’d just appeared out of the dark.

Realising that if the cultists where as poor fighters as his own opponents had been, Marius decided that his mother could kill them all without his help, in fact he’d probably just get in the way. Looking around he saw the cultist’s victim trying to crawl away to safety through the piles of corpses. Running over to the girl, Marius knelt beside her, she looked up into his face with terrified eyes.

“Please Dominus,” she pleaded in heavily accented Latin, “please don’t hurt me.”

“It’s alright,” Marius smiled reassuringly at the girl, “you’re safe now. My mother and I will soon have you home safe.”

“Your mother?” The girl asked as Marius pulled her over toward a tomb.

Sitting down with his back resting against the tomb, Marius put his arm around the slave girl’s shoulder and pulled her closer.

“My mother,” he announced proudly as Faith chopped the remaining cultists into bite sized chunks, “is the bravest woman in all the world.”

0=0=0=0


	7. Chapter 7

7.

**Buffy’s Cell.**

Waking up, Buffy yawned, stretched and smiled, lying on her little narrow bed she watched as the early morning sunlight streamed in through her window. There was something good about today and it took her a moment to realise what was making the day seem so shiny and fresh; oh-yes, she smiled even more widely than she had before; it might have something to do with the cute girl in her bed!

“Hi, Eos,” Buffy shook her friend awake.

“Oooooh!” Eos groaned as she tried to shield her eyes from the sunlight streaming into the little room, she yawned hugely, “I’ve got a mouth like a Gaul’s armpit!”

“Open wide,” Buffy turned to look into her friend’s mouth, “No,” Buffy shook her head, “no Gauls in there,” she bent down and kissed her friend on her forehead, “Come on, time to get up.”

“Is it?” Eos glanced at the light coming in through the window, before admitting “I suppose it is.”

Sighing contentedly Buffy swung her legs out of bed and sat up as she ran her fingers through the crows nest on her head that was masquerading as her hair; she’d give anything for a proper glass mirror. Standing up, she searched for her dress, remembering she’d left it downstairs in the atrium she took her spare off the hook on the door and pulled it on over her head. After tying a cord around her waist she sat down on her bed again to put on her sandals while she watched a naked Eos stumble around the room looking for her tunic.

“I hope you’re not going out in that,” Buffy said as she laced up her sandals.

“Why what’s…” Eos looked down at her exposed breast, “…oh! Yes I see what you mean, this is hardly the thing to wear in the day time.”

“You came dressed like that yesterday?” Buffy asked, even for Eos that seemed a little over the top.

“Yes,” Eos admitted, “But I had a cloak on over it.”

“You can borrow one of my short tunics,” Buffy pointed to the chest in the corner of the room, “but remember to totally bring it back.”

“Of course,” Eos smiled her thanks as she pulled her revealing tunic off.

“Gods you’re freaking sexy,” Buffy gasped as she stood up, “come here.”

Pulling the naked girl towards her, Buffy let her arms slip around her friend’s lithe body as she kissed her passionately on the lips.

“No!” Buffy let go of her friend and took a step back.

“What’s wrong, Trix?” Eos asked puzzled by her friend’s actions.

“Much as I’d like to stay up here with you all day,” Buffy fought against the urges that pulsed through her body, “I’ve got to get on,” she smiled apologetically, “sorry, work to do, gotta go!”

0=0=0=0

**Noxious and Piteous’ Wine Shop and Bawdy House, later that very morning.**

“Men!” Buffy stared morosely into her cup of wine, “You think you’ve found a good one then you end up plunging your dagger into his throat!”

“Trix…” Cassandra began to say something but was cut off as Buffy started to talk again.

“Or they turn into some bloodsucking fiend,” Buffy remembered her shock and disappointment when she’d seen Angle’s face change into its true form; how could he have done something like that to her? “But…” Buffy took another mouth full of wine before reaching for the jug, “…but, that’s so not the point!”

Having been told to take the orgy girls back to Cassandra’s mother, Voluptua, and collect the deposit; Buffy had taken a short detour on her way home to go to Noxious’ and Piteous’ wine shop. The money had been weighing heavily in her hand and she knew no one would notice a few coins missing. By ‘no one’ Buffy meant Lurcio as he’d pocket (if anyone had pockets) the deposit and keep it all for himself. Buffy doubted that Ammonia even realised that you got money back on orgy-girls when you took them back to the shop.

Ever eager to spend time in the company of her hero, Cassandra had gone with Buffy to the wine shop after signing in the girls and putting them back in their pen. There was nothing to do at the shop in the mornings as business didn’t start to pick up until the afternoon. Knowing she could trust the household slaves to clean up the girls, Cassandra doubted that her mother would even notice that she wasn’t there. So, she’d taken the opportunity to spend some time with her hero and maybe hear some exciting stories from the arena. Instead she’d got a weird, rambling rant about men and what good for nothings they were and how they always let you down.

“More wine!” Buffy called as she noticed that the wine jug was empty after she’d tried to refill her cup; taking a few small coins from her purse she slapped them on the table.

“Are you sure you should drink any more?” Cassandra asked, looking up she saw Tittea, one of the waitress, bring a full jug of wine over to the table; Cassandra shook her head at the girl. “Won’t you get into trouble if you go home to your mistress drunk?”

“Don’t care,” Buffy mumbled at the dregs in her cup, she glanced drunkenly up at Cassandra, “If you want my advice,” Buffy tried to focus on her friend’s face, failed and looked back at her cup, “don’t have anything to do with men.”

Cassandra opened her mouth to say something, she quite liked men, one young man in particular, however she didn’t get to mention this because Buffy kept on talking.

“They’ll tell you all sorts of nice things,” Buffy sniffed as a tear rolled down her cheek to splash onto the table, “like they’re gonna stay with you forever and that they’re soooo not bloodsucking fiends, but…its-its all just a trick, y’know?” Buffy muttered, “T-They just wanna get between your legs an’ fuck you…” Buffy sniffed long and hard, “…or stick their cocks in y’mouth…bastards…all of ‘em!”

“Alright Trix, I think you’ve had enough,” Cassandra stood up and started to haul her friend to her feet.

“A-And I’m not talking poultry here, y’know!?” Buffy leaned unsteadily against Cassandra.

Across the room in a dark corner two men watched the girl struggle with the drunken woman; this was going to be too easy. Earlier in the day Villanus and Odius had been hired by some rich man’s servant to kidnap the blonde woman, who was even now swaying drunkenly only a few paces away from them. The two thugs had once worked for the ‘quality’, a senator no less, in Rome. They’d even come to Pompeii on a job for the senator but he’d been killed while they were away and they’d been left high and dry. Not wishing to go back to Rome where several really powerful and dangerous people were after their heads they’d elected to stay where they were and set up a new business here in Pompeii.

Part of that business was performing kidnappings; other parts included murder, extortion with a sideline in general unpleasantness. They were masters at their trade and had become quite rich and famous or even infamous. The servant had come to them with a purse heavy with silver and a suggestion that they might like to kidnap a female slave by the name of Trix who belonged to the House of Sextus. The servant had told them that his master was enamoured of the girl but her mistress wouldn’t sell her to him. Neither Villanus nor Odius cared about that, it all sounded like money for old rope to them.

Getting up from their table the two criminals made their way across the shop; they’d simply grab the girl and hustle her out of the shop, nothing to it. Afterwards they’d take her down the ally that ran along the side of the building. From there they’d take her back to their crib, fuck her and then hand her over to the rich man’s servant. They could see nothing that could stop them. It was with extreme confidence that they made their first and only really big mistake of their career in Pompeii. Walking up to the two women, Odius pushed the younger girl aside while Villanus grabbed their target.

“HEY!” Buffy cried out seeing Cassandra being knocked to the floor, “What y’think y’doin’!?”

Feeling a hand grab her by the arm, Buffy lashed out with a fist sending her attacker stumbling across the room knocking over stools and tables as he went. No sooner had Buffy dealt with one opponent than she found the other trying to hold her arms behind her.

“Bastard!” Buffy jerked her head back catching her attacker on the bridge of the nose; blood flew everywhere as the man clutched at his ruined face.

“THIEF!” Cried Cassandra raising the alarm from her seat on the floor, before adding, “SLAVENAPPER!”

By the time she’d finished with her second assailant, Buffy saw that her first attacker had got to his feet and was coming at her with a cudgel in his hand and a determined look on his face. Seeing the weapon, Buffy got a flash back to when she’d first been captured. The slavers had used clubs to beat her into submission then, she wasn’t about to let it happen again. As soon as the man got within range, Buffy kicked him in the tentacles. Unfortunately as she was still a little drunk and wearing a long dress, her foot got tangled up in her dress and she fell to the ground hitting her head on a stool as it went by.

Luckily it was just about at this point that two watchmen arrived at the wine shop, having heard Cassandra’s cry for help. Taking in the scene they quickly worked out what had been going on here. Two women, one a citizen or free woman and the other a slave were lying on the floor obviously having been assaulted. Two men, hardened criminals by the looks of them, also lay on the floor having received a beating from a concerned citizen who’d since left the scene.

“Those two men tried to steal Senator Sextus’ favourite slave girl!” Cassandra pointed to the would-be kidnappers.

“Is that so?” Asked the senior watchman.

“Aye,” Noxious the co-owner of the shop added his weight to the argument, “tried to snatch her away in broad daylight.”

“Right,” this seemed to be an open and shut case of attempted grand theft slave-girl, the senior man gestured for his colleague to help him, “let’s get ‘em.”

Roughly the two watchmen dragged the criminals to their feet, as they pulled them towards the exit the senior watchman turned back to the shop’s owners and patrons.

“I doubt this’ll need come to a trial,” the watchman announced, “but if it does can we rely on your testimony?”

“That you can,” Noxious reassured the officer, he didn’t want his shop to get a bad reputation, “you nail ‘em up officer.”

“Oh,” laughed the watchman, “it’ll be the arena for these two. Saturday afternoon if you want to see justice done!”

After watching the watchmen leave, Cassandra helped Buffy to her feet again.

“Come on, Trix,” Cassandra said soothingly, “let’s get you home.”

“What happened?” Buffy looked around as she rubbed the back of her head, “Who moved the world!”

0=0=0=0

**The House of Aestatis.**

Having finished the morning training session, Cordelia had dismissed the girl’s to their chores. Thinking that she needed to get out of the house for a while she decided to go shopping in the market just up the street from the villa. After buying, bread, cheese, olives and a flask of olive oil, Cordelia wandered around the stalls seeing what was on offer, not that she intended to buy, until they started to earn again they didn’t have money to squander on non-essentials. Pausing outside a shop, Cordy looked at the sign above the door, ‘Prosperous’ Emporium’ it read. Glancing at the goods on display she decided they were way out of her present price range, in a few weeks maybe. Walking on she came to a stall selling fruit.

“Weird,” Cordelia said to herself, “bananas?”

That couldn’t be right, she told herself, but there they were as large as life and twice as yellow. Stepping forward she asked the stall holder how much he charged for a bunch. Thinking that the asking price didn’t sound too bad, Cordelia bought a bunch and put them in her basket, she’d always liked bananas and it would be a nice treat for Dawn when she got home. Breaking a banana from the bunch, she unzipped it and bit into its white flesh. Flavour exploded in her mouth almost making her gasp at its intensity, they were so much more flavoursome than the bananas of her own time. Distracted she turned and walked straight into a young man who was staring at the wax writing tablet in his hand.

“OH! Sorry!” Cordy cried spraying the young man with half eaten banana.

“W-what!?” Nausius stared at Cordelia as if he’d seen a ghost, his eyes going wide as he lost all power of speech or movement.

“Oh I’m so sorry,” Cordy discarded her half eaten banana into her basket and tried to brush the pieces of masticated banana off the young man’s tunic. “I’m such a klutz!” She apologised again, “Sorry.”

“Cor-Cor-C…” Was all Nausius could say as he tried to speak the name of his own personal goddess; she was actually touching him, this was beyond his wildest fantasies.

“Caw? What are you some kind of crow?” Cordelia asked confused, she looked at her hand which was now covered in mashed up, chewed banana; oh gods, she thought, what a mess.

His mind almost on sensual overload at Cordelia’s touch, Nausius took a step backwards gave a quiet strangled scream before turning and fleeing back to the safety of his home.

“What the Hades?” Cordelia watched the young man flee towards the large villa at the end of her street; shrugging her shoulders, she turned towards home, the guy must be some kind of freak.

0=0=0=0

**The Garden of the House of Sextus.**

“Oh gods,” Buffy moaned, “my head.”

Sitting on the marble bench by the pond, Buffy held her head in her hands and groaned as she promised herself to never drink wine before the sixth hour ever again. Her memory of the fight were a little hazy, she’d sort of worked out that someone had been trying to snatch Cassandra; at least she hadn’t been too drunk to save her friend. Hearing footsteps behind her, Buffy looked up to see her young master, Nausius, hurry through the shrubs that surrounded the pond.

“Oh, no!” Buffy groaned quietly, the last thing she wanted was to be subjected to another bad poem or awful play.

“Trix!” Nausius cried as he ran over to Buffy and sat down next to her; Buffy eyed him through bloodshot eyes, “Thank the gods you’re here!”

“Okay,” Buffy raised her head from her hands and turned slowly to look at Nausius, “what’s gone wrong now? Another play rejected, someone laugh at your poems?” Buffy decided the time had come for some tough talking, even if her head did feel like it was going to explode. “If you don’t mind me saying, Dominus, have you ever considered that you’re not destined for the literary life?”

“Oh, don’t worry about that,” Nausius cried excitedly, “I met her, she spat banana over me and she touched me!”

“She? Who?” Buffy asked completely confused as to what the young man was raving about, “Banana? Touched!? Why’d…?”

“I’ll explain,” Nausius said excitedly.

“I wish you would,” Buffy replied trying to clear the cobwebs from her mind.

“The lovely Cordelia, that vision of Venus in human form,” Nausius gasped and gazed across the pond unseeingly, “she walked right into me and spat banana over me and then…”

“She did what?” Buffy wondered if ‘spitting banana’ was a Roman euphemism for something.

“She touched me!” Nausius clutched his hands together over his heart in a melodramatic gesture.

“Oh, by the gods,” Buffy sighed losing patience, “So she touched you, so what? It doesn’t mean that she wants to screw you!”

“But…!” Nausius turned hurt and pleading eyes on Buffy.

“She’s probably a whore or the slave of some tradesman’s wife,” Buffy pointed out, she had to get Nausius to shut up about this girl or she’d go insane listening to his lovelorn prattling. “Here…” Buffy slipped off the bench and knelt in front of Nausius, “you really need to get a proper girlfriend,” she reached under his tunic and pulled his penis out into the open, “instead of moping about after women you’ll never get to speak to, now shut up and try not to come too soon!”

Buffy took his cock into her mouth and felt it go hard against her tongue; at least while she was doing this he’d shut-up…mostly.

0=0=0=0

**The Kitchen of the House of Sextus.**

A little later that day Buffy found herself in the kitchen taking out her frustrations on a chicken. Grasping the bird firmly in her left hand she raised the cleaver in her right before bringing it sweeping down with inhuman strength and speed onto the fowl’s neck. With one last terrified cluck the chicken died, its blood spurting over the chopping block and onto the floor. Holding up the expertly slayed chicken, Buffy held the still weakly struggling bird over a bowl to catch its blood so it could be used later. After she was satisfied that the creature was drained she passed it to one of the children, who performed menial chores around the kitchen like plucking and gutting.

“Thanks, Trix,” Scrubba eyed the bloody chicken’s head on the floor this distrust.

“That’s okay,” Buffy replied, “but you’ve totally got to get over this whole not touching birds’ thing.”

“I know,” Scrubba admitted, “but every time I…” the young cook was interrupted by a cry from the main part of the house.

“LURCIO!” Ludricus Sextus’ voice drifted down to the two women in the kitchen, “LURCIO! Where are you?”

“Hades!” Buffy tutted and shook her head, “What does the old fool want now?”

“Lurcio!” Ludricus’ voice was getting closer as he made his way down the stairs towards the kitchen, “I can’t find my speech.”

“His speech by the sounds of it,” Scrubba grinned as the sound of her master’s sandals on the steps got closer.

“Dominus?” Lurcio walked in from the garden with a bunch of herbs in his hand.

“Ah! There you are Lurcio,” Ludricus arrived in the kitchen and looked around hopefully.

“Can I help you, Dominus?” Lurcio crossed the kitchen to stand in front of his master.

“I can’t find my ‘Lend me your Feet’ speech,” Ludricus explained, “Have you seen it anywhere?”

“Well,” Lurcio made a show of looking around kitchen, “it’s not down here, Dominus, perhaps it’s in your study?”

“No I’ve looked,” Ludricus nodded his head slowly before looking around the kitchen again, “I don’t suppose Trix could come and help me look for it?”

“Hmmm,” Lurcio pondered the problem as he glanced over to where Buffy stood, “you want her to check that it’s not hidden under your toga perhaps? Well,” he sighed, “I’m afraid she’s busy right now Dominus.”

“Oh, pity,” Ludricus gazed at Buffy sadly.

“Now why don’t you go back up stairs,” Lurcio ushered Ludricus back towards the stairs, “like a good Dominus and I’ll be up in a moment to help you search.”

“I suppose so,” Ludricus shrugged his shoulders, “I’m sure Trix would find it in an instant.”

“Yes, I expect she could, Dominus,” Lurcio repeated, “but as you can see she’s busy.”

“Thanks, Lurcio,” Buffy sighed once Ludricus was out of earshot, “I’ve just done Nausius, I just couldn’t face,” Buffy paused, “you know, another one so soon.”

“Eyes bigger than your belly, eh? Well,” Lurcio glanced back at the stairs as if making sure their master had actually gone, “you better make yourself scarce for a while.” Lurcio tried to think of something for Buffy to do, “I know,” he said after a moments thought, “go and give the backdoor step a good scrub.”

“Do I have to?” Buffy whined.

“Well it’s either that or…” Lurcio looked meaningfully up the stairs.

“Yeah, okay,” Buffy’s shoulders slumped dejectedly, “Trix on scrubbing duty.”

0=0=0=0


	8. Chapter 8

8.

**The back door of the House of Sextus.**

Bucket of water in one hand and scrubbing brush in the other, Buffy pushed open the backdoor with her butt. Putting down her bucket, she got down on her hands and knees and then after wetting her brush she started to scrub the stone step.

“Her I am,” Buffy muttered despondently, “highly trained gladiatrix and slayer and they’ve got me scrubbing the doorstep!”

Hard at work Buffy didn’t at first notice the pair of hobnailed, military sandals that appeared in front of her or indeed the pair of feet encased within said sandals. Slowing slightly in her scrubbing, Buffy glanced up and noticed the sandals and their attendant feet for the first time. It was only when several more sets of feet and sandals appeared in front of her that Buffy finally stopped scrubbing. Sitting back on her heels she looked up at the five soldiers who were looking down at her menacingly.

“Okay,” Buffy sighed, “if you guys expect me to suck all of you I’m sorry, but you’re out of luck.”

Slowly, Buffy climbed to her feet as she studied the soldiers, these weren’t the usual civic guard these were proper legionaries, veterans; she could tell by their well used but carefully maintained equipment. Slowly she turned her eyes onto the officer in charge of this little force and smiled. The man’s face and arms, in fact anywhere where flesh showed, was covered in bruises. This was the Tribune who’d hit her with his whip when she’d been out shopping with Lurcio; this was the man she’d beaten to a pulp on the night of Ammonia’s orgy when her mistress had invited men to fight her. Buffy couldn’t help but giggle at the man’s multi-coloured bruises.

“Can I help you?” Buffy asked, an insolent grin on her face; the officer and his men weren’t covered by the obedience spell on her collar, so if they wanted trouble she was ready, willing and able to give it to them.

0=0=0=0

Clutching hold of the hilt of his sword so tightly it almost hurt, Tribune Crixus held onto his temper by a mere thread; the little whore was mocking him. But now was not the time to teach her manners, he had more important fish to fry. His patron and fellow conspirator, Proconsul Lecherous Secundus Maximus had demanded that he get back the list of senators who were willing to support their assassination of the First Citizen. Crixus supposed that he could just grab the girl; however the two villains he’d hired to do the self same thing had mysteriously got themselves arrested and condemned to the arena. Deciding that subterfuge might make a more subtle opening gambit, he smiled down at the slave girl.

0=0=0=0

“Trix, is it not?” Crixus asked trying to keep his voice light and pleasant; when all he really wanted to do was order his men to seize the girl and torture the where abouts of the scroll out of her. “I don’t want to hurt you…”

“Gotta say,” Buffy shrugged, “the feelings not mutual.”

“No!” Crixus fought to prevent his hand from pulling his sword and cutting the insolent bitch down, instead he said, “No, I want to be friends.”

“You do?” Buffy asked suspiciously.

“Yes,” Crixus nodded his head, “you’ve got something I want.”

“I do?” Buffy frowned, “What could I have that…” slowly the dupondius dropped, “Hey look!” Buffy clutched her scrubbing brush protectively, “I told you I’m not sucking anyone’s cock this afternoon and if you want anything more than a suck you’re out of luck with that too!”

“No!” Crixus rolled his eyes heavenward, the girl had a one track mind, “You stole something from me and I want it back.”

“I did?” Buffy eyebrows came together in one long line, “When?”

“In the market the other day,” Crixus decided he’d play the girl’s game…for now.

“Oh yeah,” Buffy nodded as she crossed her arms under her breasts, “was that before or after you totally hit me with your whip for no reason?”

“Ah!” Crixus frowned.

“Ah, like yeah,” Buffy took a step towards the man and stared up his nose belligerently.

“Well,” Crixus quickly pulled a couple of coins from his purse and held them up in front of Buffy’s eyes, “forgive and forget?”

Her hand a blur, Buffy snatched the coins out of the man’s grasp.

“Okay,” Buffy dropped the coins down the front of her dress, “so what was it I’m supposed to have stolen?”

“A scroll,” Crixus said hopefully, it almost sounded like the girl was willing to help.

“Like a scroll with a list on it?” Buffy asked slowly, “I might know where that is.”

“You do?” This time Crixus’ smile was genuine, “There’s a reward.”

“There is?” Buffy beamed, it looked like what she’d thought was a guest list for her mistress’ orgy was in fact something else and this guy was willing to pay to get it back, “Who much?”

“Five sestertius,” Crixus offered.

“Make it denarius and I’ll see what I can do,” Buffy made her counter offer.

“Oh, alright then,” Crixus produced the coins from his purse and held them up for Buffy to see, after all it wasn’t his money.

“Wait here,” Buffy grinned at the money, “I’ll see what I can find.”

Closing the door behind her, Buffy tip-toed quickly down the corridor toward her master’s study. Using all of her slayer skills she crept up to the open door and looked inside the room. As luck would have it, Ludricus Sextus was nowhere to be seen. Quickly stepping into the room, Buffy looked around. Seeing the scroll under her master’s desk she squealed quietly with joy before snatching it up and running from the room and back to the door.

“Here!” Buffy announced breathlessly as she opened the door, “Is this it?”

Taking the scroll, Crixus opened it up and glanced quickly at the list, this looked like what he was after.

“Well?” Buffy asked impatiently, “Is it? You see I can’t read and it just looks like a list to me.”

“You can’t read?” Crixus asked slowly as he quickly rolled up the scroll after giving it a cursory glance.

“No,” Buffy shook her head.

“So you’ve no idea what this says?” Crixus hid the scroll under his cloak.

“No,” Buffy shrugged, “it’s all Greek to me, or in this case Latin.”

Sighing with relief, Crixus realised there was no need to kill the girl right now. Although he had no compunction about killing the little slave girl, in fact he’d actually like to kill her after the beating she’d given him at the orgy. However he was sensible enough to realise that killing the girl could be counter productive. Questions would be asked if a valuable slave suddenly turned up dead with a sword wound in her stomach; no, he’d bide his time for now.

“Here,” Crixus handed over the coins; after all he’d made a bargain, he watched as they quickly followed their brothers down the front of the girl’s dress. “Alright men,” Crixus turned to his troops, “our work here is done…”

0=0=0=0

**The House of Sextus that evening.**

“Ah, there you are,” Lady Ammonia called as Buffy walked into the atrium and over to the couch where she was sitting.

“I live to obey,” Buffy replied unconvincingly as she came to a halt in front of the woman and added sotto voice, “not that I have much option.”

“Oh, Trix don’t be like that,” Ammonia frowned as she put down the scroll she’d been reading and gave Buffy her full attention, “We’ll get that collar off you one day, I’m sure; now I have some news for you that’ll cheer you up!”

“Oh goodie,” Buffy smiled unconvinced.

“Is it your time of the month, dear?” Ammonia asked concerned, “Because if it is, you…”

“No Domina,” Buffy shook her head, “I’m just feeling a little full,” she rubbed her stomach, “you know?” 

“Get that Scrubba girl to give you something for it why don’t you?” Ammonia smiled, before continuing, “Anyway, I have a couple of jobs for you so you might want to spend some time practising instead of lazing around the house all day.”

“Yes Domina,” Buffy’s tone belied her real thoughts.

Lazing around the house all day? The chance would be a fine thing, when she wasn’t avoiding that randy old goat, Ludricus Sextus; Lurcio kept her busy with chores around the house. Then there was always Nausius and his poems and plays, sometimes after listening to an hour or so of those she’d actually welcome a whipping just as long as he’d shut up!

“Tomorrow night I have a demon for you to kill,” Ammonia explained, “Do you know, ‘The Venus in a Half Shell’?”

“The brothel over near the arena, Domina?” Buffy asked.

“That’s the one,” Ammonia nodded her head, “seems they’ve got themselves a Lust Demon in the basement and the neighbouring brothels are complaining about unfair trading practices, I want you to kill it, understand?”

“Yes Domina,” Buffy nodded.

Unfair trading practices indeed, Buffy thought sourly. What had probably happened was that ‘The Venus’ had hired the demon and one of their competitors had paid Ammonia to get rid of it. The truth was that Pompeii was overrun with Lust Demons; their numbers were reaching plague proportions. Of every five demons Buffy killed, three would be lust demons. Opinion was divided as to whether the demons helped to give Pompeii its ‘bawdy’ reputation or whether the demons were attracted to the city because it already had a bawdy reputation. Whatever, Buffy sighed quietly, even with their four arms and prehensile phallus, Lust Demons weren’t that hard to kill.

“Then on Saturday you’re on arena duty again,” Ammonia informed her.

“What? Again?” Buffy’s shoulders slumped, “I was only on last week, remember the hellhounds?”

“Indeed I do,” Ammonia smiled, she’d watched the fight and had been impressed by Buffy’s skill; she’d also made a tidy some from betting on her girl. “Anyway the Prefect informs me that it’s your turn again.” Seeing the sour look on Buffy’s face, Ammonia frowned with concern, “Are you sure it’s not your time of the month?” Normally Buffy was eager to fight, Ammonia watched as Buffy shook her head. “Then I don’t know what’s wrong with you, maybe you need a good purging. But that’s as maybe,” Ammonia paused to gather her thoughts, “it’s a memorial games,” she informed Buffy, “there’s a good purse in it for you…”

“How much and what do I fight?” Buffy often found herself matched against something big and nasty for the entertainment of the crowd.

“At least six-thousand,” Ammonia’s smiled “no demons this time. It’s your turn to kill some criminals and prisoners, think of it a live practice.”

“Yeah, okay,” Buffy shrugged, killing off some criminals was better than facing some huge demon, “anything else, Domina?”

“No you can run along now,” Ammonia made a gesture of dismissal.

Leaving the atrium and Ammonia behind her, Buffy headed up to her room; she’d need to check over all her gear and sharpen her weapons. Once that was done, she’d need to go down to ‘The Venus in a Half Shell’ and scope the place out perhaps get a fix on the demon.

0=0=0=0

**The House of Aestatis.**

Like some huge insect the lust demon climbed along the wall of the villa. As he came to a window he’d try the shutter, so far they’d all defeated his attempts at gaining access to the room where the pregnant girl and her slave slept. He’d been watching them for several nights now, in between visits to the bedchambers of the other young women who lived in the villa. His entire body ached to couple with the girl and her slave, his need was getting urgent if he didn’t get inside where these two beauties slept he would burst with pent-up desire.

After trying all the shutters and finding them firmly locked, the demon sat in the alcove made by the window above the bed where the two young women slept. He cursed horribly as only a demon could but not as loudly that people would hear him and raise the alarm. He didn’t want the venetrix on his trail, that would be a quick way to death and a return to the infernal regions where there were only damned souls for him to slake his lust on. Thwarted at gaining access to the soft desirable bodies the other side of the shutters, the demon came up with another plan. Smiling evilly and exposing a mouth full of sharp teeth, the demon closed his eyes and concentrated. If he couldn’t get in to enjoy their bodies in person he could at least enjoy them vicariously.

0=0=0=0

Stirring in her sleep, Dawn rolled over to face Cordelia. Slowly her arm reached out and she ran her hand over her friend’s soft, smooth, skin until her hand came to rest on Cordelia’s breast. Moaning softly Cordelia rolled over until she too was facing Dawn. Her own hands roamed over Dawn’s body until they too found the firm swellings of her breasts. Slowly their lips came together and they kissed passionately each believing that this was no more than a vivid and slightly embarrassing erotic dream.

On the other side of the shutter the demon fed off the sensations of the two young women as he smiled and stroked his phallus. His pleasure intensified as Dawn and Cordelia writhed in each others arms their lips pressed together as their tongues explored each others mouths. Their hands roamed urgently over their bodies as they teased each others breasts and nipples or stroked each other between the legs. Eventually coming to a mind numbing mutual climax they screamed their lust and desire to the night only to wake up moments later to stare horrified into each others eyes.

Smiling to himself and thus having marked his territory the lust demon climbed out of the window alcove and up the wall until he came to the roof. Standing up he looked out over the city and the small part of it that was his personal domain. Standing with his legs wide apart he raised his face and arms to the moon. He was just about to proclaim his victory to the night when he felt something sharp being thrust into his back. Gasping and coughing blood the demon fell to his knees, he tried to turn and see who had attacked him. The last thing he saw in this world was something fast and bright heading towards his neck. Moments later he woke up in the red, back lit domains of the infernal regions.

“Fuck me!” He said in surprise.

“Certainly,” announced a voice from behind him, “but you won’t enjoy it!”

0=0=0=0

Wiping the blood from her sword onto the rag she kept for just that purpose, Buffy looked down at the body of the lust demon.

“ _Another one bites the dust,_ ” she sang quietly, “ _Another one bites the dust,_ ” Buffy performed a little victory dance over the demon’s body as she sang the Queen song. “ _And another one’s gone, and another one’s gone, another one bites the dust, yeah!_ ”

Having gone down to the Venus in a Half Shell, to check the place out, Buffy had been heading home when she’d noticed the lust demon standing on the roof of the villa just down the street from where she lived. Guessing that the demon couldn’t get in she’d climbed up the wall to the roof and snuck up behind the demon and killed it.

To be honest, lust demons weren’t all that dangerous, yes they were formidable fighters with their four arms, muscles and being seven to eight feet tall. If it wasn’t for the fact that they caused most of the sexual assaults in the town all they really did was give people very vivid erotic dreams. Just being near a lust demon could cause people to become sexually over-active which was why brothels liked to have a lust demon in the cellar. It made the brothel more popular and the demon got to ‘feed’ off the emotions and fallout from the lust caused by all the sex going on in the rooms above.

Replacing her sword in its sheath, Buffy gave the dead demon a final look. Its body would soon turn to dust when the sun rose in the morning, she wouldn’t have to worry about heaving the carcass down to the ground and dumping it down into the sewers where it would be washed out to sea. Satisfied with her night’s work, Buffy turned her back on the ex-demon and headed for home and her little bed. Tomorrow night the demon at the brothel would have to die but that was all for tomorrow.

Of course she didn’t worry about being affected by the demon’s influence, she was the slayer, the venetrix; she’d never do anything overtly sexual she was immune.

0=0=0=0


	9. Chapter 9

9.

**The House of Aestatis.**

Breakfast the next morning was a stained and silent affair with neither Dawn or Cordelia willing to look in the others eye or indeed speak. Watching Cordelia surreptitiously from under her eye brows, Dawn decided that they needed to talk and it looked like Cordelia was in denial-land so it was down to her, after all she _was_ the mistress of the house.

“Okay,” Dawn began slowly, “what the freaking Hades was that all about?”

“I’m _so_ not a lesbian!” Cordelia blurted out.

“I never said you where,” of the two of them, Dawn felt like she was the only one acting like an adult here.

“Nothing happened it was a dream,” Cordelia replied rapidly, hoping that Dawn would drop the subject.

“So acting like Willow and Tara on a hot date was just a dream?” Dawn pointed out her voice getting slightly higher in pitch as she spoke.

“Who?” Cordelia asked.

“What?” Dawn frowned back across the table.

“Tara?” Cordelia queried.

“Oh, yeah, sorry, after your time,” Dawn explained, “when you knew Willow she was still going out with Oz, right?” Dawn paused to take a breath, “Shortly after you ‘died’, Oz left Willow and she turned gay and was dating another witch called Tara.”

“Oh,” Cordelia replied slightly distracted by what Dawn had told her, “so, okay Willow turned into a screaming dyke, I haven’t.”

“The evidence would seem to totally point in a different direction,” Dawn began calmly before becoming more resolute, “I’d say that your tongue half way down my throat and your fingers buried in my…”

“STOP!” Cordelia held up her hand bringing Dawn to a premature halt, “Okay, I admit it I’m a gay, child molester, satisfied?”

“You’re so not a child molester,” Dawn reached across the table and touched Cordelia’s hand; the older girl moved it away almost immediately, “you’re only a couple of years older than me…and I’m pregnant, so, not a child.”

“Stop trying to make me feel better,” Cordelia sobbed.

“Well,” Dawn shrugged, “we’re going to have to work it out.”

Dawn was feeling quite proud of herself for not going to pieces over the whole gay-thing like it looked like Cordelia was doing; after all it might explain a few things if she was gay. After the first blush of romance with Varro, her now dead fiancé, she’d not really felt comfortable with the guy, Roshan, the dead Princess in her head had wanted to screw him at almost any opportunity but Dawn hadn’t.

“Look,” Dawn stood up, “we can’t go on like this, we’ve got to see if we’re really gay or if it was a one off thing.”

“How do we do that?” Cordelia replied miserably, she didn’t want to be gay; she was supposed to have a rich husband and live in a nice house, she couldn’t do that if she was gay.

“Kiss me!” Dawn told Cordelia firmly.

“WHAT!” Cordelia stood up knocking over the bench she’d been sitting on.

“Kiss me,” Dawn repeated, “do what your domina tells you and then we can see if we’re gay or not.”

Smiling to herself Dawn thought that Willow and Tara would be proud of her for acting so grown up. Reluctantly Cordelia walked around the table and stood in front of Dawn. Sighing slightly, Dawn stepped closer to Cordelia so her belly was touching the older girl, going up on tip-toe a little Dawn leaned forward and kissed Cordelia on the lips.

“Okay?” she asked.

“Well,” Cordelia looked uncertainly at her friend, “it wasn’t terrible…”

Dawn kissed Cordelia again this time more passionately, within moments Cordelia started to respond and they were soon locked in a hot-blooded embrace as their hands started to roam over each others bodies.

“Oh gods,” Cordelia moaned as she broke away from Dawn for a moment, “we’re gay!”

0=0=0=0

**The House of Proconsul Lecherous Secundus Maximus.**

Bursting into the Proconsuls office, Tribune Crixus came to a sudden halt before doing a neat about-turn and heading for the door again.

“I’ll come back when you’ve finished,” Crixus called wishing he’d knocked before entering.

“Stay where you are,” Lecherous gasped as he drove himself deeper into the slave girl’s rear as she bent across his desk, “I won’t be but a moment; shut the door and sit down.”

Closing the door, Crixus tried to ignore the Proconsul and his slave. He sat down on a couch and started to study a small statue of the god Mars, while the Proconsul grunted and the slave girl moaned. Thankfully Lecherous finished what he was doing fairly quickly after Crixus had arrived; the slave girl was dismissed and Lecherous rearranged his toga before sitting down behind his desk.

“I hope you bring me good news,” Lecherous asked as he sorted through the papers on his desk.

“Indeed I do, Proconsul,” Crixus stood up and walked over to Lecherous’ desk, “I’ve retrieved the list.”

Producing the scroll from under his cloak, Crixus placed it in front of the Proconsul.

“How many did you have to kill to get it back?” Lecherous asked as he picked up the scroll and started to unroll it.

“None, Proconsul,” Crixus smiled proudly a trail of bodies could easily lead back to himself and the Proconsul.

“Bribes?” Lecherous ran an eye over the words written on the scroll.

“Only the one,” again Crixus smiled, “and that was fairly cheap.”

“Good,” Lecherous put down the scroll and looked up at Crixus, “I’m glad you didn’t waste your money…”

“Waste my money?” Crixus asked more than a little worried.

“Yes, you imbecile!” Lecherous replied angrily, “Did you actually bother to read this…” Lecherous waved dismissively at the scroll, “…document?”

“Erm, yes, well,” Crixus was beginning to think he’d made a very bad mistake, but he couldn’t think what exactly he’d done wrong, “what’s wrong Proconsul?”

“I’ll tell you what’s wrong,” Lecherous got up and walked around his desk to glare into Crixus’ eyes, “it’s the wrong scroll,” he pointed with a trembling finger at the scroll. “This appears to be a guest list for a party or something and not a list of conspirators willing to overthrow the First Citizen!”

“Oh crap,” Crixus gasped realising what must have happened; cursing himself he wished he’d read the scroll more carefully after the blonde haired slave had handed it to him, like a blinding flash, realisation came to him, “Gods below damn that little bitch to Hades!”

“What?” Lecherous wanted to know what Crixus was talking about and how he intended to get the right list back.

“That little whore of a slave girl,” Crixus ground out between gritted teeth, “she must have switched the scrolls somehow!”

“Switched the scrolls?” Lecherous demanded, “Explain!”

Thinking quickly, Crixus came up with a tale that was both plausible and directed the blame well away from himself.

“I bribed that gladiatrix girl to steal the scroll for me,” Crixus explained urgently, “I’m sure she handed over the right one.” This was a lie, Crixus had looked at the scroll Buffy had given him but it only registered as _a_ list of names in his head, not as _the_ list. “She must have switched it when I was distracted.” 

“Distracted?” Lecherous asked only slightly less annoyed than he’d been a few moments before.

“Erm, yes,” Once again Crixus thought quickly, “there was an altercation in the street and I looked to see what was going on.”

“Hmmm,” Lecherous rubbed his chin as he watched the soldier from under his eyebrows, “perhaps you aren’t such an idiot after all…”

Crixus breathed a sigh of relief, it appeared that his little subterfuge had got him off the hook.

“…but,” Lecherous walked slowly across the room until he was looking out of the window with his back to Crixus, “we still need that list.” Turning he pointed at Crixus, “I don’t care what you have to do or who you have to kill, but get me back that list!”

“Yes, Proconsul!” Crixus saluted, turned on his heel and swept from the room.

Walking briskly along the corridor outside, Crixus wondered how he was going to get inside Senator Sextus’ house to search it. Whatever happened, however, the days of that little blonde bitch’s life were numbered.

0=0=0=0

**The House of Sextus.**

Smiling happily to herself, Buffy walked along the corridor towards the kitchens. So far it had been a really good day; first thing she’d gone for a run. After breakfast she’d spent an hour or two sparing with Ennius. The old soldier (Buffy said ‘old’ but Ennius was only in his late twenties) was pretty good. What he lacked in speed (after all no ordinary human could match a slayer for speed) he made up for in skill and just plain sneakiness; he’d certainly given her pause for thought once or twice.

After her sparing session she’d spent a relaxing hour or so in the Sextus houses’ own steam rooms with Eos getting all the kinks out of her muscles. While Eos had worked her magic on Buffy’s body they’d talked about their respective love lives. As far as Buffy’s was concerned this didn’t take long, just how many different ways were there to say, zip, nada, nothing and old maid? On the other hand Eos’ love life looked as if it was going to settle down as she appeared to have fallen madly in love with Ennius and he with her. Having known the girl for some time, Buffy had never seen her quite like this. Back at the gladiator school, Eos had done the sex thing because that was part of her job and she’d enjoyed it (actually Buffy didn’t think ‘enjoyed’ was quite a strong enough word, but it would do for now).

Now when, Eos spoke about Ennius, she’d giggle girlishly or her voice would go all wistful and far away. The most surprising thing was they’d not had sex yet. Yes, Eos who couldn’t lie down without opening her legs hadn’t had sex with the man she appeared to have fallen in love with. Frowning to herself, Buffy thought about this as Eos kneaded the muscles in her legs, perhaps the girl was really in love? Perhaps Buffy needed to have a quiet word with Ennius to see what his intentions were towards her bestest friend in the entire world.

“Right!” Eos patted Buffy on her butt, “All finished, you want I should give you a special massage too?”

“Erm,” Buffy was about to refuse but gave the offer some thought, “Yeah,” she turned onto her back, “why not? Thanks!”

Sighing contentedly, Buffy closed her eyes and lay back as Eos ran gentle hands over her breasts and down between her legs; yes Buffy thought as her hips began to move in response to Eos’ stroking, this was the life!

0=0=0=0

After Eos had finished her ‘special massage’ the two young women had splashed about in the cold pool for a while before climbing out and drying off. After getting dressed the girls kissed each other goodbye and had gone their separate ways; Eos was going down the street aways to give a pregnant lady a back rub, while Buffy was heading towards the kitchens looking for something to eat.

“Ah! Trix!” Came Ludricus Sextus’ voice from just behind Buffy, she turned to see the old senator standing in the doorway to his study, “Just the young woman I was hoping to see,” Ludricus smiled, “I wonder if you could come and give me a hand with some thing.”

Coming to a halt Buffy new exactly what Ludricus Sextus wanted and it wouldn’t have a lot to do with hands.

“Coming, Dominus,” Buffy sighed as she turned around and followed Ludricus into his study.

“I was wondering if…” Ludricus began, but his words where cut short when Buffy placed her hand on his chest.

Pushing the senator backwards across the study she made him sit down on the couch under the window. Kneeling down next to the couch, Buffy searched around in Ludricus’ toga until her hands found his penis. Ignoring the old man’s protestations, Buffy hauled his manhood out into the open before taking him into her mouth.

Some little time later, Buffy let go of Ludricus’ phallus, swallowed and then wiped around her mouth with the hem of her dress.

“There you go,” Buffy said as got back to her feet; she was just heading on out of the door when Ludricus’ voice made her stop and turn to face him again.

“Well,” the old man smiled, “thank-you very much for that, young Trix, but that’s not what I called you in here for.”

“It wasn’t!?” Buffy gazed at her dominus slightly stunned.

“No,” Ludricus smiled as he shook his head and climbed to his feet; he gestured towards a heavy piece of furniture, “I’ve lost my ‘Lend me your feet’ speech and I think its behind this cupboard.” Ludricus patted the piece of furniture as if it was a horse, “I was wondering if you could use your unnatural strength to move it for me so I can see if it’s behind it?”

“Yeah sure, dominus,” Buffy agreed, she felt such a fool for mistaking her dominus’ desires.

Walking over to the cupboard she easily moved it away from the wall. Crying out with joy, Ludricus bent down to retrieve a scroll that was lying on the floor behind the cupboard. He unrolled it and looked at it while Buffy pushed the cupboard back into place.

“No,” Ludricus sighed sadly and absently passed the scroll to Buffy, “that’s not the one, now where could it be…?”

Looking at the scroll, Buffy saw that it was a list, in fact, she frowned a little as she thought back to before the party, it looked suspiciously like the scroll she’d found in her shopping basket. Wishing she could read, Buffy rolled up the scroll and put it down on Ludricus’ desk. Feeling a little sorry for the old man who was still trying to find his speech, Buffy volunteered to help him search.

Together they searched the room from top to bottom until Buffy cried out that she’d found something. Reaching behind a large, stuffed, flightless bird of some kind (Buffy thought it was an Emu, but she knew that couldn’t be right) her fingers came into contact with what felt like a scroll. After moving the ‘Emu’ slightly Buffy got her fingers around the scroll and pulled it out into the open. Climbing to her feet she passed the scroll to her dominus.

“Is this what you’re looking for, Dominus?” Buffy asked hopefully.

“Let me see, let me see,” Ludricus muttered as his fingers untied the thread securing the scroll, he opened it up. “YES!” He cried happily, “Oh thank-you Trix,” he patted Buffy on her butt, “I knew you’d be able to find it for me.”

“Right!” Buffy smiled, pleased that she’d been able to be of service in a non-sucking way; she watched for a moment as the old senator’s eyes ran over his speech, “Is there anything else I can do for you, Dominus?”

“No, no,” Ludricus shook his head slowly, “you can go now, thank-you.”

“Okay,” Buffy turned and headed for the door but was called back by Ludricus.

“Here,” Ludricus, held up a shiny silver coin; as soon as Buffy was close enough he slipped it down the front of her dress, “for you.”

“Thank-you Dominus!” Buffy said surprised at the size of the reward, thinking he might want something else, she asked, “Would you like me to…?”

“Oh no!” Ludricus smiled, “Once a day is enough for an old man like me,” he nodded, “no you don’t know how important this speech is to me and…” Ludricus paused and sighed, “you’re a good girl Trix,” once again he patted Buffy on her behind, “A credit to the House, I’ll be sorry to see you go when they get that collar off you and you buy your freedom.”

*I bet you will,* Buffy thought uncharitably to herself, but the old guy looked genuinely sad at the thought of her leaving his household, so aloud she said, “You sure you don’t want another, y’know? I mean its no trouble.”

“No, no I’m fine,” Ludricus went back to his scroll, “you run along now…”

“Okay, Dominus,” Buffy headed for the door again.

“Later perhaps!” Ludricus called after her as she stepped into the corridor.

Resuming her trip to the kitchen, Buffy reached down between her breasts and retrieved the coin.

“Wow!” She smiled, with the money she had already (this didn’t include her prize money being held for her by Lady Fidelia) this meant she’d be able to get herself a really nice dress to wear; not that she knew when she’d wear it but it would just be nice to have one just in case.

0=0=0=0

**The House of Aestatis.**

“What a nice girl,” Dawn sighed as she lay back on her couch in the solarium.

“Yeah,” Cordelia retied the purse she carried to her belt after paying off the Greek girl, “almost too good to be true.”

“Jealous!” Dawn laughed as she looked up at her friend, “Don’t worry I won’t be leaving you for pretty Greek masseuses any time soon…” an impish grin came to Dawn’s mouth, “…of course I could learn to get used to this not having a backache feeling!”

“Oh!” Cordelia looked sharply down at Dawn, “I could so learn to do that!”

“Then perhaps you should ask Eos to teach you,” Dawn replied coyly, “and she was saying something about a ‘special lady’s massage’…I wonder what she meant by that?”

“Yeah,” Cordelia frowned and glanced towards the door, “I wonder?”

“Now,” Dawn patted the couch next to her as she budged over to make room, “come and sit down and tell me how things are going, are the girls going to be ready for tomorrow.”

“Sure,” Cordelia lay down next to Dawn and took one of her hands in her own, “I scoped out where we’d be performing then I worked out a routine to fit the available space.”

“Good,” Dawn smiled as she rested her head on Cordelia’s shoulder, “I take it you’ll be leading the girls?”

“Sure thing,” Cordy smiled, she loved to dance and she loved to dance in front of an audience; the Amphitheatre at Pompeii held nearly twenty-thousand people and that was what Cordelia called an audience.

“So, how much are we being paid again?” Dawn closed her eyes as she snuggled up to Cordy.

“Two thousand,” Cordelia informed her, “but that’s just for the Saturday afternoon.”

“Good,” Dawn’s mind counted the money in her head and put it in neat piles; some would go for the general upkeep of themselves and the girls, others would be spent on stuff that they needed and some would be hidden away and saved. “We’ll need more work soon,” Dawn muttered sleepily, “we need to build up our reserves again.”

“I know,” Cordelia looked down at her sleepy friend and smiled, “but that can wait,” she started to climb off the couch, “you stay there and have a little nap, I’ll be back later.”

After checking that Dawn wouldn’t get sunburnt in her sleep, Cordelia left her where she was to have a little nap; she on the other hand was going to run the girls (and herself) through the routine a couple of times. Tomorrow was important, things needed to go well; when people saw them perform, Cordelia wanted them fighting each other to hire ‘Domina Aurora’s Saltatrices Celsus’.*

0=0=0=0

*: Rough translation; Lady Dawn’s Exalting Dancing Girls. 


	10. Chapter 10

10.

**The Amphitheatre, Pompeii.**

The amphitheatre in Pompeii was like no other that Buffy had fought in before and it was also probably the oldest. Elliptical in shape the entire structure was four-hundred-and-thirty-two feet long by three-hundred-and-thirty-five feet wide at its widest point. A wall no more than eight feet high separated the arena proper from the first of thirty-five rows of seats. While the proximity of the first rows of seats gave the spectators an excellent view of the action, it also meant that they were not only in danger of being splashed with blood they also stood a chance of being dragged into the arena themselves.

To prevent this thick wooden stakes had been attached to the top of the wall with bronze brackets and heavy rope nets were hung between the stakes. Over hanging the edge of the arena this effectively protected the important people in the front seats as well preventing anyone or anything actually in the arena from climbing out and escaping. At the very top of the amphitheatre wall was the usual arrangement of masts and rigging designed to hold the awnings that would protect the crowd from sun or rain.

Because the arena was a good twenty feet below the surrounding ground level, there were none of the usual, cells and waiting areas under the arena like in every other amphitheatre in Italy. All these rooms, cells and waiting areas were housed under the seats themselves and connected by a long corridor that ran around the entire amphitheatre connecting the Gate of Life at the north end of the amphitheatre to the Gate of Death at the south end.

At this very moment, Buffy, Eos and Ennius were in a small room just off the corridor near the gate of life. The room was normally hired out to one of the many prostitutes that worked the amphitheatre on games days. Because Buffy was one of the very few gladiatrix in Italy and the only one in Pompeii; Ammonia thought that she deserved somewhere private to arm and rest between fights, instead of being thrown in with the common gladiators.

Standing in the centre of the room, Buffy let Eos and Ennius fuss around her as they dressed and armed her ready for the parade of the gladiators. Smiling to herself, Buffy listened to Eos and Ennius bicker good naturedly about how Buffy should be dressed and equipped. They certainly sounded like a ‘couple’, Buffy told herself, perhaps they’d actually had sex between now and the last time she and Eos had spoken. Like that was yesterday, Buffy frowned and sighed to herself, Eos enjoyed sex and Buffy had been a little surprised that she hadn’t jumped on Ennius’ penis earlier; maybe this was true love after all?

“Something wrong, Trix?” Eos asked, she’d heard Buffy sigh.

“Erm,” Buffy smiled at the girl, she needed to get her out of the room so she could have a quiet word with Ennius, “no I’m fine,” Buffy smiled reassuringly, “but, erm, could you go get a couple more buckets of water, I’ve got a feeling this is going to be a bloody day.”

“Water?” Eos gave her friend a puzzled look, if they needed more water surely she could get it later.

“Yes, water,” Buffy looked meaningfully at the door.

“Oh!” Eos wondered why Buffy wanted to be alone with Ennius, her mind sprang to completely the wrong conclusion, “Oooh, alright.”

Casting Buffy a pleading look, Eos picked up a couple of spare buckets and headed on out of the room in search of the arena well.

“Okay, Ennius,” Buffy said quickly, no doubt Eos was sprinting for the well just about now and would be back soon, “I can call you Ennius, right?”

“Of course,” Ennius replied as he checked the arm straps on Buffy’s shield.

“Good,” Buffy went and stood right in front of Ennius forcing him to look up and pay attention to her. “Look, you know Eos is my bestest friend in the entire world don’t you?”

“Yes,” Ennius nodded his head, an uncertain smile on his face.

“Right,” Buffy injected a little menace into her voice, “I’m here to tell you that if you jerk her around or break her heart and make her cry, I’ll totally rip you heart out,” Buffy smiled brightly, “okay?”

“But…” Ennius started to object, but Buffy silenced him with a dark look.

“You know I can do it,” Buffy explained, “Eos is a sweet kid whose had to grow up fast, I don’t want to see her hurt, you understand?”

“Of course I understand,” Ennius replied belligerently, “I love her and hope to marry her one day.”

“You do!?” Buffy exclaimed her face splitting into a wide grin, “That’s great!” she hugged Ennius clumsily in her armour, then added a little sternly, “remember what I said though.”

“Of course,” Ennius was about to say more but was interrupted by a panting Eos, the bottom half of her dress was soaked from were she’d been running with two buckets of water.

“Thanks Eos,” Buffy smiled at the girl, “put ‘em down, it’s nearly time for me to go. Oh and Ennius you remember what I said, right?”

“What did you say, Trix?” Eos asked suspiciously.

“Oh, just to tell Lady Fidelia I killed a Lust Demon last night; is all.” Buffy gave Eos a reassuring look, “Hey,” she grinned, “by the look you’re giving me anyone would think I’m trying to get Ennius into bed, I’d never do that to you, sweetie.”

“Oh,” Eos wasn’t a hundred percent sure if she believed her friend, but…well, Trix was her friend so… Deciding to give her the benefit of the doubt, Eos got on with her work.

0=0=0=0

Quickly they went through the pre-fight check list, each time Ennius called out an item of clothing or equipment, Buffy and Eos would check that they were present and properly in place. Starting with her sandals, Eos worked her way up Buffy’s body. Grieves to protect her shins, sword and knife on the wide leather belt around her waist that also held up her short white skirt. Shield on her left arm, arm protector on her right, finally there was her helmet that she carried under her right arm.

“Ready to go,” Buffy smiled as she controlled the butterflies in her stomach, it was only a little normal stage fright, once she was out on the arena floor they’d disappear.

“No!” Eos cried, “We’ve forgotten something,” she turned away and searched through the cloth bag she carried, producing a small pot of cosmetic paste, she faced Buffy again, “you mustn’t forget this.”

“Okay,” Buffy sighed, “if you must.”

Stepping towards Buffy, Eos smeared some pinkie-red coloured paste onto Buffy’s nipples. Almost immediately they started to tingle and go hard.

“Just what do you put in that stuff?” Buffy asked quietly as Eos finished.

“Never you mind,” Eos told her, “anyway it’s for luck.”

From her first ever fight; Eos had made the paste for Buffy to put on her nipples. Yes, they did make them stand out (in more ways than one) and yes maybe it did give her a little boost in the luck department. The one time she’d forgotten to put it on she’d almost been killed, so perhaps Eos did know what she was talking about.

0=0=0=0

Walking along the connecting passageway, Buffy started to meet the other gladiators who’d be fighting today. Some she knew and exchanged greetings with; others she didn’t, these were either new men or gladiators from out of town. None of these men, even the ones she exchanged a few friendly words with were her friends. She’d found out the hard way not to be friends with men she might have to kill one day, not that she fought regular gladiators that often. But, it was best to keep them all at arms length.

Presently she found herself in a large assembly room with the other gladiators and a few arena slaves who were busy making final adjustments to men’s equipment. At the far end of the room from the door by which Buffy had entered was another door that led to the vestibule that in turn led to the arena. It was from here that half a dozen guards appeared with their swords drawn. These were followed by very tall, very ‘upright’ lady of quality.

The lady must have been well into her fifties, but she carried herself like a woman twenty years younger. She was slim with a sharp, angular face that Buffy somehow couldn’t imagine ever laughing, her hair was silvery-grey and arranged in the latest style and she was rich. The sort of rich that meant she never, ever had to ask the price of anything, be it a piece of jewellery or a country. The clothes and jewellery she was wearing now could have bought every gladiator there twice over and still have change. The woman paused and looked at the slightly stunned gladiators who stood before her.

“I’ve a few words to say to you before these games begin,” she said in the type of voice that commanded armies or even empires.

Glancing around, she held out her hand to one of her guards who steadied her as she climbed up to stand on one of the stone benches that ran around the room; she gazed out imperiously at all the faces that were turned towards her.

“Gather round,” she commanded; Buffy and the other gladiators shuffled closer to the woman not knowing quite what to make of her.

“Now, these games are being held in honour of my late son, Brutus Maximus,” she informed them in a high strong voice, “who was worth more than the whole lot of you put together.” She paused to let that sink in, “It is my intention that these games shall be remembered long after you’re all dead and forgotten even by your nearest and dearest.”

Again she paused, this time to give the assembled fighters a withering look, several men actually did appear to wither and one or two looked as if they were going to embarrass themselves.

“You’re all scum, and you know it,” she continued unafraid of what the gladiators might do or think, “but you’ve a chance here, some of you, to prove that you’re a bit more than that…and for those who death doesn’t liberate; there’ll be plenty of freedoms handed out afterwards,” she gestured dismissively before adding, “to say nothing of gold plate and coins.”

“But,” she seemed to pin every fighter in the room to the floor with just a look, “I want a good show. I want my money’s worth.” She explained, “I don’t want any kiss-in-the-ring stuff and I don’t want by family watching two grown men pussyfooting around each other for half an hour before one of them aims a real blow, there’s been too much of that in the past.” The lady took a deep breath before pointing towards the gladiators; Buffy and she suspected, every other gladiator in the room felt like the lady was pointing directly at them, personally, “And don’t think you can fool me either because I know every trick in the book,” she smiled knowingly, “including the pig’s blood in the bladder, to make it look as if one of you’s dead. There’s been too much of that lately.”

“These games are being degraded by the increasing use of professional tricks to stay alive!” The lady raised her voice slightly, “And I won’t have it, so put on a good show and they’ll be plenty of money for the living and a decent funeral for the dead.” Once again she cast her eyes across the by now cowed crowd of gladiators, “And if I don’t get what I want, I’ll see the lot of you sent to the mines. That’s all I’ve got to say to you.”

Dismissing the gladiators from her mind, the lady climbed down from the bench with the help of one of her guards. The gladiators parted like the Red Sea as she moved majestically between them. Glancing to her right she saw Buffy and stopped, she looked down at the short gladiatrix.

“Who are you, girl and what are you doing here?” the lady asked as she looked down her long elegant nose at Buffy.

“I’m Buffitrix, Domina,” Buffy replied as staunchly as she could, refusing to be cowed like all the others, she stood up straight and looked the woman directly in the eye, “I kill them all!”

“Indeed,” unfazed the lady continued her silent and minute inspection of Buffy’s soul, “I’ve heard of you,” she admitted, “make sure you put on a good show. As I say there’s rewards for those who do and suffering and pain for those who don’t.”

Turning her head away from Buffy the lady swept out of the room without a backward glance.

0=0=0=0

“Okay girls,” Cordelia smiled, “take a breather.”

Everything was going better than expected, no one had screwed up and the crowd seemed to love them. The cheerleaders were performing on a wooden stage set on the media cavea opposite the VIP box. The important people in the ima cavea just below them got the added bonus of being able to see right up Cordelia’s and her girl’s skirts. Not that this was such a big advantage, when they’d spelled out the name of Brutus Maximus’ name the crowd had given an extra loud cheer whenever they came to a ‘u’.

Accepting a cup of water from Harmonia, Cordelia ran her eye down the list of events as she refreshed herself. The first thing on the list was the parade of gladiators. The editor would announce about half a dozen of the most famous gladiators and Cordy and her girls would spell out their names. Checking to see how many u’s, v’e and w’s there were, Cordelia smiled, everyone would get a good look at her girl’s ‘charms’ which had to be good because it’d encouraged people to hire them to perform at their parties.

Glancing at the list once again, Cordelia’s eye fell on one name about half way down; ‘Buffitrix’ it said. Frowning, Cordy thought for a moment, ‘trix’ meant a girl or woman and ‘Buffi’… Well, this couldn’t be right, Cordelia thought about this, someone must have miss spelt it, they probably meant Bellatrix. Hearing the Editor’s assistant blow his whistle, Cordelia placed her cup and list at the side of the stage and called her girls to attention.

“Okay guys,” Cordy called as she cast her eyes over towards the gate of life, “the first name is...Aulus!”

Good, thought Cordy as she and her girls started their routine, a nice short name to start with and two u’s.

0=0=0=0

Sitting in the ima cavea near the VIP box, Dawn, or Lady Aurora as she was known, had a good view of Cordy and her girls. Everyone seemed to be enjoying the show, hopefully she’d start to hear about enquiries to hire the dance troupe in a few days. Having paid the Editor to pass on any enquiries, Dawn was sure that the money would soon be rolling into their coffers in no time.

Looking away from the girls and the crowd’s reaction to them, Dawn concentrated for a moment on the gladiators as they passed just below her. Her eyes slid over the well muscled and oiled physiques of the men to fall on the short, blonde and sunburnt figure of the only woman in the crowd.

“Oh by Ishtar!” Dawn gasped, “It’s Buffy!”

0=0=0=0

Okay, Buffy asked herself, where did the cheerleaders come from? Looking away from where the girls were dancing as they spelt out the names (hers included) of the more famous and popular fighters, Buffy glanced up to see the imposing lady from earlier and her family watching as the gladiator’s walked by. Buffy gave the lady a slight nod, the woman had impressed Buffy and she’d decided to try and give her an extra special show if she could. Walking on passed the VIP box, Buffy caught a glimpse of a pretty young pregnant woman staring at her from the crowd. My, thought Buffy, she looked as if she’d seen a ghost.

“Hey!” One of Buffy’s fellow fighters nudged her arm, “She looks like she’s gonna pop right there in the stands!”

“Yeah,” Buffy nodded her head slowly, she hoped the young woman was alright, “Come on,” she nudged the gladiator onwards, “I’d have thought you’d be more interesting in those saltatrices than pregnant women, unless there’s something you’re not telling me!”

“Hey, Trix!” The gladiator, Aulus, complained, “I’m not a pervert! Anyway she’s probably got a husband and knowing my luck he’s probably some big, scary bastard!”

“Oh, poor Aulus,” Buffy mocked the guy gently, “you always go for the married women with the scary husbands.”

“Not my fault,” Aulus shrugged and frowned; however he soon brightened as they passed below the dancing girls. “Now that,” Aulus smiled, “is some high class cunny!”

“You’re gross, you know that?” Buffy punched Aulus’ arm playfully, “Girl here, standing right next to you!”

“Sorry, Trix,” Aulus spoke without taking his eyes off the dancers, “But you’re more like one of the guys.”

“One of the guys!?” Buffy squeaked in outrage, “What are these then?” Buffy shook her breasts at her fellow gladiator, “How many guys have boobs?”

0=0=0=0

Nearly stumbling at the sight of ‘up-tight’ Buffy Summers shaking her boobs at the man next to her, Cordelia cast a glance over to where Dawn was sitting. Their eyes met across the ninety feet that separated them. All she could think was, ‘by the gods that was easy’! Of course, when she thought about it where else were you going to find a gladiatrix other than at the arena? The parade was over now, so Cordy told the girls to take another breather. Leaving Harmonia in charge, she made her way around to where Dawn was sitting.

“You okay?” Cordelia asked as she slipped into the seat next to Dawn.

“Fine,” Dawn nodded before adding, “fine!”

“You saw her then?” Cordy asked as she took one of Dawn’s hands in her own.

“Yeah,” Dawn nodded again, “but she sorta looked right through me like she doesn’t know me.”

“Yeah, well maybe she doesn’t,” Cordy said trying to make Dawn feel better.

Further conversation was made impossible as the crowd roared its greeting to the first gladiator into the arena.

0=0=0=0

Unusually, Buffy found herself first on today, being a well known gladiatrix she usually performed later in the day. But today her first job was to execute a couple of common criminals, so she supposed the Editor felt he could safely put her on early as she was unlikely to get injured before her main bout in the afternoon. Walking out into the sunshine, Buffy raised her sword and shield in acknowledgement of the crowd’s cheers.

“Buffitrix!” the chant began like far away waves crashing on the seashore, “BUFFITRIX! **BUFFITRIX!** ”

Very soon Buffy found herself standing in the middle of the arena, she turned towards the VIP box as the crowd started to go quiet. Slowly she raised her sword in salute her eyes going to the matriarch of the family.

“We who are about to die, salute you!” Buffy called out the traditional greeting; but as the roar of the crowd grew to drown out the words she usually added after the salute, this time Buffy said nothing, this time she found she meant it.

Turning towards the Gate of Death, Buffy raised her shield and readied her sword waiting for her first victims of the day to arrive. In the crowd a young woman clutched hold of her friend’s hand.

“Oh sweet, loving Ishtar, look at her, Cordy.” Dawn sobbed, “What have these bastards done to my sister!?”

0=0=0=0

The ‘Lady’s speech’ to the gladiators was taken from the old BBC series ‘I Claudius’. 


	11. Chapter 11

11.

**The Amphitheatre, Pompeii.**

Watching over the rim of her shield, Buffy saw the gate of death open and the two naked men being pushed out into the open by the arena slaves. Stumbling into the arena proper, the men shielded their eyes from the bright morning sun and looked around themselves in bewilderment. A slave followed them out onto the sand and threw two swords at their feet. Hesitantly the condemned men bent to pick them up, swords in hand they looked around and noticed Buffy standing in the middle of the arena.

Smiling in the privacy of her helmet, Buffy watched the men as they walked slowly towards her, she’d seen their type before. These were the sort of men who preyed on the weak and helpless, the people who couldn’t fight back. Now the tables were turned; now _they_ were the weak and helpless. 

“Gods, you’ve got to love Roman justice!” Buffy laughed as she slowly walked towards the condemned men.

Slowing to a halt half a dozen paces from the men, Buffy waited to see what they’d do; if they had any courage or honour they’d attack her and this could all be over with quickly and relatively painlessly. However, if they were craven cowards, like she suspected they were, the next ten minutes or so would be very messy. Seeing that the criminals weren’t going to make the first move, Buffy yelled at them and made as if to charge them.

The mob burst into laughter as one man dropped his sword and took to his heels, he ran off towards the arena wall. Shaking her head, Buffy watched as the man stumbled along next to the wall seeking some sort of escape route. The other man held on to his sword and retreated from Buffy his eyes wide with fear. Sighing to herself Buffy started out after the man who still held on to his sword. If this bastard made her run around the arena getting all hot and sweaty, she told herself, she was not going to be pleased.

Running towards the man, Buffy’s heart sank as the mobs laughter got louder. The swine was going to run around and drag out the entire miserable business. Didn’t he realise that there was no escape, she asked herself as she trotted after him; did he not know that even if he somehow managed to kill her, they’d just send out more gladiators until he was dead, there was no escape from the arena.

Listening to the mob, Buffy could hear that some of the laughter was turning to boos, she didn’t have time for this and she didn’t want the mob to get pissed at her. Sprinting after the man with the sword, she rapidly closed the distance and came up behind him. With the gasps and cheers of the mob ringing in her ears, she swung her sword cutting the tendons behind his right knee. Giving a high pitched shriek of pain the convict crashed to the ground; clutching his wound he rolled from side to side as he squealed in agony.

“Oh! Come on you big baby!” Buffy took a step towards the downed criminal; she kicked his fallen sword out of reach as she moved in for the kill. “You made me run around and get all hot and dusty,” she rolled him over onto his back with her foot and then placed it on his chest holding him down. “Go on,” Buffy laughed as she noticed the crook look up her skirt, “take a good long look; it’ll be the last thing you’ll ever see.”

Raising her sword, Buffy was just about to thrust it into the convict’s throat when she paused and looked into the gangster’s face.

“Hey, don’t I know you?” Buffy asked, it was a rhetorical question so she didn’t wait for an answer, “Yeah, you’re one of those bastards that tried to snatch Cassie, weren’t you?”

The gangster didn’t answer.

“I bet you were going to rape her and sell her to a brothel weren’t you?” This time Buffy did want an answer, however, none was forth coming and the mob was getting restless at her seeming inaction.

Deciding to move things along again, Buffy took her foot off the would-be rapist’s chest. Casting away her shield she grabbed one of his arms with her free hand and lopped off his hand and threw it into the crowd. There was a squeal of disgusted laughter from the good seats and a roar of approval from the plebes. The convict screamed with renewed agony as his heart pumped blood onto the sand. Realising she wasn’t going to get anything out of the crook, Buffy dragged him towards the centre of the arena as the mob cheered her on.

Standing over the squirming thug, Buffy plied her sword deftly cutting off the man’s other hand and both his feet. Furious at the thought of her young friend being sold and forced to work in a brothel she slowly pushed her sword into the crook’s belly making him feel every inch of steel as it slipped into him. Once her blade was a good six inches deep in his stomach, she yanked back on the blade and ripped his guts open. The mob cheered as the crook’s intestines spilled out onto the sand. Pausing for a minute, Buffy made a mental note to send some wine to the arena slaves, an apology for making such a mess for them to clean up.

Standing upright again, Buffy raised her sword to the crowd in salute; letting their cheers wash over her, her eyes fell for a moment on the cheerleaders. The girls were going wild jumping up and down and waving their pom-poms in the air. Smiling to herself, Buffy walked over to where the other criminal cowered against the wall. Standing over the man she grabbed him by the hair and dragged him into the centre of the arena. The mob waited with baited breath to see what she would do next.

The cheerleaders chanted as they performed high kicks, “II-IV-VI-VIII who do we appreciate?” The girls jumped into the air as they called out, “BUFFITRIX!!!”

“OKAY ASSHOLE!” Buffy yelled into the crook’s face as she rested the point of her sword against his throat. “Did anyone pay you to snatch my friend?” The thug sobbed and mumbled something as he begged Buffy not to hurt him, “Look,” she replied quickly, this couldn’t go on for long the mob was already getting restless, “I can do this quick or I can take the next quarter hour over it, which do you want?”

“We were paid to snatch you!” Sobbed the gangster, “Please don’t kill me…”

“Snatch me?” Buffy frowned and wondered if she’d miss heard him, “WHAT DO YOU MEAN?” Buffy slashed open the flesh on the convicts right thigh and watched the blood spurt onto the ground.

“We were paid to snatch you!” Screamed the criminal, just before Buffy stepped back and cut off his right hand.

“AAAAAGH!” Screeched the would-be kidnapper, “PLEASE…” he begged, “Don’t hurt me any more!”

“Yeah I wonder how many times people have begged you not to hurt them,” Buffy placed the tip of her sword between the thug’s legs and sliced off his penis.

Screaming in agony the crook rolled up into a ball and writhed about on the ground. Picking up the bloody piece of skin and gristle Buffy showed it to the crowd before throwing it down into the dust and stamping on it. Realising she’d get nothing from this useless lump of meat, she grabbed him by the hair again and hauled him to his feet. Drawing back her sword arm she swung her weapon with all her strength. The convict’s head parted from its body and Buffy was left standing holding the dripping head in her hand and with the body crumpled at her feet.

The crowd cheered and the cheerleaders did hand stands and turned somersaults as they danced wildly about their little stage. Turning towards the VIP box, Buffy noted that even the stern lady who had paid for the games was looking happy. Trotting over to where she’d discarded her shield, Buffy retrieved it and thrust her arm back through the straps. Running back into the middle of the arena she raised her sword in salute to the Stern Lady before turning to acknowledge the cheers of the crowd, finally she trotted over to where the cheerleaders performed and gave them their own salute. The young dancers squealed with delight to be so honoured and broke into a new chant and dance routine as Buffy headed for the gate of life.

“Buffitrix, Buffitrix, kills them all!” Chanted the cheerleaders as the bounced around their stage in their excitement.

0=0=0=0

“Oh, Ishtar!” Dawn wailed as she sobbed into Cordelia’s hair; how could this have happened, how could her sister do the terrible things she’d done to those men?

Deep inside, Dawn knew she’d got tougher, harder since she’d arrived in the past; she’d done things she’d never have dreamed of doing in her own time. But, she’d mostly done them in self-defence or to save others. Her sister couldn’t have done all those terrible things of her own free will. Dawn knew that the Buffy she’d watched wasn’t really ‘her’ Buffy, but she couldn’t believe that any Buffy from whatever reality could act like that. Slowly torturing those two, poor men to death for the amusement of the crowd. No, it simply couldn’t be, someone must be forcing her to do it, someone must have a hold over her.

“Domina,” Cordelia hugged Dawn tightly as she cast her eyes around seeing the odd looks they were getting from the people in the nearby seats. “Erm,” Cordy felt she needed to say something, “Hormones,” she smiled nervously at the people who were staring at her and Dawn, “It’s the pregnancy,” she explained, “you know how it makes you all emotional.”

“Then perhaps,” said a lady in a fine dress and expensive jewellery, “you should take your mistress home.”

“Yes Domina,” Cordy got to her feet pulling Dawn upright as she did so, “good idea, I’ll do that.”

Actually, Cordelia couldn’t take Dawn home, not yet, maybe at the midday break. Until then the best she could do was to get her over to be near the cheerleaders where she could keep her eye on her.

0=0=0=0

Walking into her dressing room after the fight, Buffy found Ennius and Eos’ in a more than passionate embrace.

“Get a room, you two,” Buffy told them tiredly as she dumped her shield and sword by the door before pulling off her helmet.

“I thought we had,” Ennius disentangled himself from Eos and hesitated about standing up.

“Sorry Trix!” Eos jumped to her feet and smoothed down her dress, “But you were taking so long we thought…”

“Yeah,” Buffy started to try and loosen the buckles that held on her arm guard, “I could see what you were doing and hey!” She stood for a moment her eyes darting from Eos to Ennius and back again, “Would it have hurt either one of you to come and watch me in action? I mean a girl likes to know she’s appreciated.”

“Sorry Trix,” Eos hung her head and Ennius looked slightly embarrassed.

“Never mind,” Buffy brightened, “Someone get me a cup of wine and help be get out of this stuff.”

“Here,” feeling that it was now safe to stand up, Ennius walked over to Buffy and started to unbuckle her armour, “let me get that.”

“Here,” Eos held out a cup of wine, “drink this, courtesy of Lady Ammonia.”

Drinking thirstily, Buffy smacked her lips in appreciation, it was really good wine.

“Everything go alright out there?” Ennius asked as he pulled the armoured sleeve from Buffy’s arm.

“Yeah,” Buffy stood while Ennius hung up her arm guard and Eos took off her belt, “but the bastards were both cowards.”

“Disgusting,” Ennius looked as if he wanted to spit but restrained himself, “at least when you’re caught and sent for execution you should have the decency to die with a little honour.”

“Too right,” Buffy agreed as she slumped down on a bench, “and it makes my job easier,” she sighed and took another drink as Eos got to work on her shoulder muscles. “As it was I had to chase the pair of them around the arena and hack them to little pieces…I mean look at my skirt.” Everyone did, the narrow band of pleated, white, linen was spotted with blood. “You can never get the blood completely out,” Buffy moaned, “and I’ll have to wear a clean one for this afternoon,” she looked at her two friends pleadingly, “and you know, they’re not cheap!”

“Poor, poor, Trix,” Eos giggled, “forced into destitution coz people keep bleeding on her.”

“Damn straight,” Buffy pouted and then brightened, “Anyway, the good news is the two losers were the same assholes who tried to snatch Cassie on Thursday.”

“They were?” Ennius looked up from where he was cleaning Buffy’s sword, he nodded his head, “Another victory for Roman justice.”

“Whatever,” Buffy took another mouthful of wine before speaking again, “the odd thing was I found out that they weren’t actually after Cassie,” Buffy paused to look at her friend’s expectant faces, “no, they were after me.”

“You sure?” Ennius paused in his sword cleaning.

“Well, as sure as I can be,” Buffy replied with a shrug as Eos started to sponge the blood splatter from her face and body, “You know the middle of the arena isn’t the best place to question someone.”

“I wonder why they were after you?” Eos squeezed the bloody water from her sponge.

“Oh,” Buffy sighed, “they were probably paid by someone to carry me off and make me fight for them.” Buffy shifted slightly to let Eos get the blood from under her arms, “I’m valuable,” she fingered the collar around her neck, “people are always trying to steal me…well not always, but sometimes.” Again she sighed, “Grand-theft-Buffitrix, that’s me.”

0=0=0=0

**The House of Sextus.**

Dressed in nondescript tunics and with their swords hidden under their cloaks, Tribune Crixus lead his men up to the backdoor of the Sextus villa. Looking up and down the almost empty streets to check that no one was watching, he signalled one of his men to force open the door.

“Remember men,” Crixus whispered as his man worked on the door with a crowbar, “we’re looking for the Proconsul’s scroll, nothing else, alright?” He looked at each of his men in turn checking that they’d got the message. “There shouldn’t be anyone in other than the household slaves. I want no rape or murder this is just a quick in and out job. If you do bump into the servants just tie them up and leave them, understand?”

Wood splintered as the door sung open and Crixus’ men nodded their heads in understanding.

“Right!” Satisfied that his men knew what was expected of them he gave the order, “In we go!”

0=0=0=0

**The Amphitheatre.**

Sitting just to the right of the VIP box, Lady Ammonia glanced to her left to see the head dancer of the new dance troupe leading away a young pregnant woman from the other side of the box. Frowning, Ammonia tried to remember where she’d seen the pregnant girl before; she turned to her husband who was watching the dancers perform another of their high kicking ‘cheers’.

“Isn’t that the young woman who lives down the street from us?” Ammonia gestured to where Cordelia was helping Dawn around the arena.

“W-what, my dear?” Ludricus dragged his eyes away from the rather pretty dancing girls and looked to where his wife was pointing, he shrugged he really didn’t know, “I dare say you’re right,” his wife usually was, “I can’t say I recognise her.”

“I’m sure she is,” Ammonia glanced into arena where the clowns were trying to kill each other; up on their stage the dancers were pantomiming the clown’s frantic antics and were getting more and better laughs that the clowns themselves. “You know, Ludricus, next time we have a party we must hire those dancing girls.”

“We must!” Ludricus looked up his wife having got his full attention, “You really mean that?”

“Yes I do,” Ammonia smiled, “I think they’re very pretty and very good.”

Ludricus looked heavenwards and sent a short prayer of thanks to Jove; his next thought was, how soon could they arrange the a party.

Having made her husband a happy man, Ammonia looked at the box where the Licinius family sat. Another thought came to her mind; one of these bright fine days the Sextus family really must hold a games of their own, it wasn’t as if they couldn’t afford it. Looking again at her husband who was once more staring at the dancing girls, Ammonia smiled. Once she’d softened her husband up with those dancers, she’d hit him with her idea for a games.

0=0=0=0

It was now mid afternoon and Buffy was once again standing out on the hot sand waiting for her opponent to come out and face her. The Editor of the games had sent one of his assistants to brief her about who’d she’d be fighting. The man was an ex-gladiator; he’d joined Spartacus’ slave rebellion, which was still smouldering away up in the mountains. The man had been captured and instead of crucifying him it was decided to condemn him to the arena where it fell to Buffy to carry out the sentence of the court.

It had been decided that Buffy should kill the man because the mere fact that a woman had been sent to kill him would be humiliating to the one time gladiator. The idea that he was going to die at the hands of a woman would strip him of any last vestiges of honour he might have left. A dishonourable death would also mean that his soul was doubly damned and it would go straight to Hades. Hearing the gate of death open, Buffy caught her first glimpse of the man she’d have to face. Her mouth dropped open in surprise as she realised that she recognised the man, slowly her expression changed to one of joy.

“Oh this is totally going to be so much fun!” Buffy chuckled.

The reason for her mirth was the fact that the man she was going to fight was a gladiator called Marcellus. To say that Buffy had ‘issues’ with the man was like saying that the sun was quite hot!

“MARCELLUS!” Buffy shouted her voice echoing around inside her helmet.

The man had been given a shield as well as a sword, he brought both up ready to defend himself as Buffy walked slowly towards him. The mob, sensing that something unusual was happening started to go quiet as they strained to hear what was being said.

“It’s me, Buffitrix!” Buffy called as she dropped her sword on the ground and pulled off her helmet, “You remember me, don’t you?” Buffy grinned evilly as she saw the look of recognition in Marcellus’ eyes; Buffy discarded her shield, it made a dull *clang* as it hit the baked sand, the crowd gasped. “This fine, honourable, man,” Buffy spoke to the crowd as she gestured to Marcellus, “once tried to kill me when I was unarmed and little more than a novice.”

There were mutterings of disapproval from the mob.

“Well,” Buffy laughed, “as you can see he failed then,” Buffy explained to the crowd, “lets see if he can do any better today!”

The plebes roared their approval as the cheerleaders sent up a chant of; ‘GO! BUFFITRIX GO!’. Slowly the mob took up the call of the cheerleaders, as Buffy crouched waiting for Marcellus to make his first move.

“You are sooo dead, my friend,” Buffy chuckled just before Marcellus screamed in rage and charged at her.

Unfortunately for Marcellus by the time he reached the point where Buffy had been she wasn’t there anymore. Stepping nimbly to one side to avoid the big man’s first rush, Buffy kicked his butt as he went by making him stumble and look foolish. Times had changed since Marcellus had tried to kill her at the Batiatus School. Since that day, Buffy had faced much bigger and nastier foes than Marcellus and, as she was so fond of telling people (usually just before they died) she’d killed them all.

Having regained his balance, Marcellus turned and drove his sword towards Buffy’s stomach. Dancing out the way, Buffy avoided one sword stroke after another as she slowly retreated towards the centre of the arena. When she killed this asshole she wanted everyone to see. Finally they stood in the middle of the sand and Buffy stopped giving ground. Cleverly dodging every cut and thrust Marcellus sent her way, Buffy held her ground and watched as the fear, anger and frustration started to grow on Marcellus’ face.

Waiting for her moment, Buffy yelped with joy as Marcellus thrust at her, he over extended herself and over balanced. In a shot Buffy had grabbed his sword arm. Trapping his forearm under her armpit she placed both her hands under his elbow and forced his arm back against the joint. In a desperate attempt to prevent his arm from being snapped like a dry twig, Marcellus brought his shield around to hit Buffy on the side of the head.

Lashing out with her right hand, Buffy stopped the shield in mid swing, lifting her leg she kicked Marcellus in the crutch. With a groan the big gladiator fell to his knees as he clutched his testicles in his hands.

“SHE WILL, SHE WILL, **KILL YOU!** ” Sang the cheerleaders as they cavorted around their stage, the crowd started to join in with the new ‘cheer’.

“Come on Marcellus!” Buffy danced around the downed man, taunting him with every word and gesture, “Still think I’m a silly little whore playing at being a gladiatrix, huh?” She sneered at the man, “Where’s your honour now, asshole?”

When he didn’t answer, Buffy moved in and landed a side kick to Marcellus’ right arm, she could feel his bones break through the soles of her sandals. Groaning in pain Marcellus tried to crawl away from his nemesis dragging his broken sword arm behind him.

“No you don’t!” Buffy ran after him, grabbed him by the hair and pulled him up into a kneeling position.

Once more Marcellus tried to use his shield as a weapon and once more Buffy proved too quick for him. Catching the shield in both hands, she twisted and pulled breaking the straps that held the shield to Marcellus’ arm. Casting the shield away with contempt, Buffy broke the man’s left arm in two places, but still he didn’t fall. Swinging her leg around in a roundhouse kick, she sent her victim sprawling on to his back. Jumping astride his chest she started to pummel his face with her fists quickly reducing it to a bloody mess.

Slowly the cheers of the crowd and the chants of the cheerleaders penetrated the blood red mist that clouded her eyes and mind. Pausing in her assault, Buffy stood up slowly and looked down at the man who’d so nearly killed her. He’d lost, she’d won, she had closure on the incident, the fame of her achievement would grow and the mob would love her all the more.

Once again grabbing the barely alive man by the hair, Buffy pulled him across the sand towards the VIP box. Forcing the boneless blob of flesh into a kneeling position, Buffy drew her knife from where it hung on her belt as her eyes sort out the Stern Lady. Holding her knife straight up in the air, Buffy waited for the crowd to grow quiet. As silence fell across the arena, Buffy put her knife to Marcellus’ throat.

“I dedicate this kill to you Domina!” Buffy called as she looked the Stern Lady directly in the eye; the woman didn’t flinch, in fact she smiled, just a little and for a moment Buffy felt a certain amount of fellow feeling between herself and the Stern Lady’. “I’M BUFFITRIX!” Buffy yelled as she slit Marcellus’ throat, “I KILL THEM ALL!”

The mob rose to their feet and yelled themselves hoarse as the cheerleaders started up their cheer again.

“Go, Buffitrix go! GO, BUFFITRIX GO! **GO, BUFFITRIX GO!**

0=0=0=0


	12. Chapter 12

12.

**The garden of the House of Sextus.**

The early morning sun seemed to be mirroring Buffy’s mood as it shone down on her. Sitting on a blanket by the pool and fountain in the garden, Buffy hummed happily to herself as she cleaned the blood off her gear. Lady Fortuna must be smiling on her at the moment, she told herself; so maybe it would be a good idea to make a small offering to the goddess just to keep her sweet. Buffy had noticed that the gods appeared to have a lot more power in the past than they did in her own time, so it was probably a good idea to keep on the right side of them.

After leaving the arena the previous day, Buffy had gone back to her dressing room where she’d been greeted by Ennius and an over excited Eos. For a wonder they’d not stayed in the little room going through the bases and eventually screwing. Instead they’d gone out to watch her face Marcellus; Ennius was professionally impressed that she’d taken down the big man unarmed. On the other hand, Eos always got excited when her friend won, it was just the way she was.

Their congratulations were heart felt and were starting to make Buffy feel a little embarrassed as they helped her disarm and clean up. It was when she was standing dressed only in her little skirt with Eos sponging the blood off her skin and Ennius was washing the worst of the blood off her gear that the ‘Stern Lady’, as Buffy had been calling her, walked into the small room. The woman’s real name was Lady Decima Gratia Licinius; she thanked Buffy for dedicating Marcellus’ death to her and congratulated her for putting on such a good show. As Buffy had mumbled her thanks Lady Decima had handed her a heavy purse of coins, wished her good fortune for the future and left.

Squealing with delight Buffy looked at the gold and silver coins in the purse, remembering her friends she handed Ennius and Eos a gold and silver coin each. Not only would that act of generosity keep her on the right side of the gods but it would show her friends how much she really appreciated them.

Later, after leaving the arena, the three friends went back to the House of Sextus, dumped Buffy’s gear in her room and then went across the square to Noxious’ and Piteous’ wine shop. Here Buffy slapped a couple of more coins on the counter and bought wine for everyone, another act of generosity that would keep Fortuna smiling on her. The party went on into the evening until Ennius said that Eos and himself had to go. Seeing that the couple were really desperate to jump into bed together Buffy told them to go; as he left Ennius took Buffy’s prize purse and the rest of the money Lady Decima had given her. He and Eos were going to see Lady Fidelia the next day, not only was she Buffy’s patron but she also kept Buffy’s growing fortune safe as Lady Ammonia didn’t like large amounts of cash lying around the house. After her friends had gone and Buffy had finished her wine, she’d got up and headed for home herself. At the door she’d narrowly avoided being crushed under foot by a boisterous crowd of dancing girls as they crowded into the wine shop. 

Walking slowly across the square Buffy had reflected on her day; she’d killed the two men who she’d thought were trying to snatch Cassandra but who were really trying to snatch her. Smiling, Buffy told herself that kidnapping was the highest form of flattery, she was valuable and valued and people wanted her enough to try and steal her. After doing her part in keeping the streets safe for the people of Pompeii she’d had the good fortune of being allowed to kill the man who’d tried to kill her when she was just a novice gladiatrix. For all these things, which to be honest she’d have done for free, she’d been well paid and then to put the cherry on top of the day that nice Lady Decima had given her a valuable gift.

Reaching the backdoor of her home, Buffy noticed that the door had been forced. Nodding to the slave who’d been set to watching the door until it could be repaired, Buffy continued up to her room. Nothing could spoil her good mood, she had three less enemies in the world, she’d ended the day richer than she’d started plus she was alive and uninjured, what could be better than that?

0=0=0=0

**The House of Aestatis, Sunday morning.**

Walking along the line of slightly hung over dancing girls, Cordelia couldn’t really bring herself to yell at them for getting drunk the night before. They’d deserved to let off steam, they’d worked and trained really hard the last few days and their first outing at the Pompeii arena had gone down a storm. They’d already received several requests to appear at private functions and the arena authorities had hired them for the next six major games. Standing in front of her girls, Cordy crossed her arms over her chest and sighed heavily; to be honest she had more important things to think about than worry about dancing girls staying out and getting drunk against her orders.

“Okay,” Cordelia began as sternly as she could, “as you did okay at the games yesterday I’m not going to lock you in your rooms all day without any food.”

The girls breathed a sigh of relief.

“But!” Cordelia gave each girl a hard look, “If this freaking happens again I’m selling the lot of you to a brothel!” Cordy glared at the girls as they exchanged worried glances, they liked being dancers and none of them wanted to be sold to a brothel, “Understand!?”

“Yes Coach,” the girls chorused.

“Good,” Cordelia relaxed a little, “now go do your chores then take the rest of the day off…but no drinking!” she paused for a moment as she looked at the girl’s hang dog expressions; she didn’t think drinking was going to be a problem today. “I want you all fit and ready for a really hard training session tomorrow morning,” the girls groaned and Cordy smiled, “now get!”

Turning away from her girls, Cordelia walked back into the house and sat down on the couch next to the one that presently held a very worried looking Aurora Aestatis.

“What are we going to do Cordy?” Dawn asked, her eyes searching Cordelia’s face looking for an answer.

“Okay,” Cordelia took a deep breath, it was time for her to be the grown up and the voice of reason, “first we should find out where and who’s keeping Buffy.”

“How?” Dawn asked hopelessly, seeing her sister doing what she’d done yesterday had totally messed with her world view; the Buffy she knew and grown up with would never do things like that.

“Look,” Cordelia shuffled along the couch so she was sitting nearer to Dawn, “she’s famous, all we need to do is ask around…”

“Of course,” Dawn seemed to rally and brighten a little, “someone will know who owns her and I mean she looked totally healthy and well looked after so they can’t be keeping her in a dungeon!”

“Right,” Cordelia smiled happy to see her friend look hopeful again, “once we find out who’s got her we…”

“Snatch her back!” Dawn cried.

“What!?” Cordelia had not been planning on kidnapping ‘Buffy the Gladiatrix’ when she’d got up this morning.

“Or get someone to kidnap her for us,” Dawn continued ignoring Cordelia’s interjection.

“Have you ever thought that she might not want to be freaking kidnapped?” Cordelia demanded, “She’s the freaking slayer who’s also a famous gladiatrix I don’t think she goes anywhere she doesn’t want to.”

“Are you saying that she enjoys what she’s doing?” Dawn pushed herself upright as she glared at Cordy.

“No,” Cordelia sighed, “what I’m saying is that trying to kidnap your sister might not be the best idea you’ve ever come up with.”

“So, what’s your plan?” Dawn demanded.

“I don’t know,” Cordelia replied softly, “but it’ll be better than your plan of snatching her off the street and causing a bloody riot when she doesn’t want to go.”

“Yeah,” Dawn rested back down on her couch, “I expect you’re right,” she conceded as a faraway look came to her eyes, “I wonder what she’s doing now?”

0=0=0=0

**The Garden of the House of Sextus.**

At that very moment, Buffy was wishing she could get the dried on, bloody gloop from around one of the rivets that held her arm guard together. If she didn’t get it all out it would rust and weaken her armour. Engrossed in her work she didn’t notice Nausius Sextus until he spoke to her.

“Good morning, Trix,” the young man looked down at her pensively, “do you mind if I join you?”

“Of course not,” Buffy smiled and patted the blanket indicating that he should sit next to her, “be my guest.”

“Thank-you,” Nausius sat down, “you’re working hard, I see.” He seemed unsure of what he wanted to say so he continued with his small talk. “I watched you in the arena yesterday, you were very good, as you always are.”

“While I appreciate all the flattery,” Buffy put down her armoured sleeve and gave her full attention to Nausius, “what do you really want to say to me?”

“Erm,” Taken by surprise Nausius was lost for words for a moment, slowly however, he recovered, “I’ve been thinking about what you said the other day…”

“Uh-huh,” Buffy nodded waiting for Nausius to explain, when he didn’t she added, “go on.”

“Well when you said that I wasn’t really very good at writing,” Nausius twisted the hem of his tunic between his fingers as he spoke, “and how I needed a proper girlfriend instead of pining for girls I’d seen in the street and have no chance of meeting…”

“Hey!” Buffy laughed nervously, her words had obviously upset her young master, “You shouldn’t listen to me, I’m just a silly slave girl, what do I know?”

“But you’re right, Trix!” Nausius gazed at her earnestly, “My plays are shallow and poorly written, my poems don’t rhyme or scan and as for all these love affairs…”

“Okay, okay,” Buffy gestured for Nausius to calm down, “look your poems aren’t that bad and your plays just need better plots, and as for the girlfriend thing…”

“I want you to be my girlfriend!” Nausius blurted out, “You’re beautiful and wise and sensible and brave and beautiful…”

“You said beautiful twice,” Buffy said as she gazed into Nausius’ eyes, she could see he really meant what he was saying, “but go on, I live for flattery.”

“I’d be honoured if…” Nausius began but was cut off by Buffy.

“Alright, already,” although the idea of being Nausius’ girlfriend did appeal, after all he was rich, and he was quite handsome; Buffy knew it wouldn’t work out, “Thanks for saying all that stuff…” Buffy thought back on what Nausius had said, “…you really think I’m wise?”

“Very,” Nausius sighed as he looked longingly into Buffy’s eyes.

“Cool,” Buffy grinned before she remembered she really needed to talk Nausius out of his latest infatuation, “but look it’ll never work…”

“Why not?” Nausius demanded.

“Well,” Buffy struggled for a reason ‘why not’, “erm, well…RIGHT! Your parents would never let you marry me and hey,” Buffy grinned, “at my age I’m really looking for a husband not a lover.”

“But…” Nausius looked at Buffy imploringly.

“Look Nausius,” Buffy sighed sadly as she took hold of his hand, “it’d never work out between us. You’re not in love with me you’re in love with the idea of me.” Buffy paused to order her thoughts, “I want a guy who’ll love me because I’m cute, slave girl, Trix. I don’t want someone who loves ‘Buffitrix the Barbarian Queen’, the gladiatrix covered in blood in the arena, because that’s not who I am. I want a nice husband, like Eos’ Ennius, a home, some kids, can you give me all that?”

“I wrote you a poem,” Nausius replied sadly.

“Okay then,” Buffy sighed a resigned smile on her face, the guy hadn’t really changed, he probably never would, “lets hear it.”

Unclipping the wax tablet from his belt, Nausius opened it up and took a deep breath; he glanced at Buffy half expecting her to interrupt him, when she didn’t he started to read.

“Ode to Trix,” Nausius began.

_I hereby vow,  
To give my all,  
To you most beauteous Venus.  
All that I own,  
My heart and soul,  
And half a yard of…gold brocade?_

“And you really couldn’t think of a rhyme for ‘Venus’ could you?” Buffy asked; Nausius shook his head, “Come here…”

Putting her arm around Nausius’ neck Buffy leaned towards him and kissed him lightly on the mouth. What had started as a rather chaste kiss soon took on more passionate over tones as their lips pressed together and their hands started to explore each other’s bodies.

“We can have sex if you want,” Nausius gasped as he broke away from Buffy for a moment, “I stole the charm my sister uses to stop herself getting pregnant…you’ll be fine.”

“What?” Buffy looked at Nausius as if he was insane. “That’s one of the three great lies isn’t it?”

“Sorry?” Nausius frowned truly puzzled.

“Look,” Buffy smiled, “the three great lies,” Buffy counted the lies off on her fingers; “Number one, lend me five denarius until tomorrow. Two, I’ll only put it in an inch and three; wear by sister’s charm it’ll stop you getting pregnant!”

“Oh,” Nausius said a little crestfallen, “I could see how you’d be suspicious when you put it like that…”

“But…” Buffy thought about what Nausius was offering and it had been a very long time since she’d felt the hands of a man (who wasn’t trying to kill her) on her body. “There are other things we can do…”

“Like what?” Nausius asked intrigued.

“I’ll show you,” Buffy replied as she quickly pulled off her dress and laid down on the blanket, “but,” she warned as she glanced at where Nausius’ phallus was standing up under his tunic, “you try and poke that thing anywhere that isn’t my mouth and I’ll rip it off and nail it above the front door!”

0=0=0=0

**The House of Maximus.**

“What do you mean you couldn’t find it?” Proconsul Lecherous Maximus demanded as Tribune Crixus stood uncomfortably in front of him.

“Just that,” pleaded Crixus, “my men and I searched high and low and we couldn’t find it anywhere…maybe Ludricus Sextus had it with him?” A worrying thought came to Crixus’ mind, “Maybe he’s already passed it on to the First Citizen’s agents.”

“No,” Lecherous shook his head slowly, “no, if he had we’d be hanging from crosses by now.” Lecherous thought for a moment, “I know what the old fool intends to do…”

“You do, your Excellency?” Crixus asked hopefully, he’d been beginning to think that a move to somewhere north of the Rhine might be a good idea.

“Yes!” Lecherous smiled evilly as he explained, “The old fool is giving some speech in the forum today…something about stamping out the sin and vice in the city.” Lecherous chuckled, perhaps Ludricus Sextus wasn’t such a fool after all. “He’s obviously going to use the opportunity to denounce us all right there in the forum. He knows once the plot is out in the open we’ll not be able to kill him…”

“No,” Crixus nodded his head slowly, “we’ll be too busy running for our lives…”

“But,” Lecherous didn’t seem to have heard Crixus’ comment, “if he wasn’t to reach the forum alive…”

“Ah!” Slowly a smile of relief came to Crixus’ face, “I see, kill him before he can give his speech!”

“Yes, we’ll make it look like a normal political assassination,” Lecherous mused, “and you and your men will do it…”

“But…” Crixus started to object.

“I don’t want any more mistakes,” Lecherous snapped, “you and your men will disguise yourselves and cut down Ludricus Sextus in the street before he gets to the forum!”

0=0=0=0

**The Garden of the House of Sextus.**

Not able to hold himself back any longer, Nausius groaned and ejaculated into Buffy’s mouth.

“Gods below!” Nausius gasped, “that was…”

“I know,” Buffy grinned as she wiped around her mouth with a rag, “I’m just too good,” she lay back down besides Nausius’ naked body, “and you’re not so bad yourself.”

Under her tutelage, Nausius had brought her to a couple of pretty amazing climaxes using his fingers and tongue. Now, lying there, sexually satisfied and with the sun shining on her naked body, Buffy thought that if she were to die now she’d die a happy woman.

“Trix!” The call came from further up the garden near the house.

“Damn it!” Buffy sat up and started to pull on her dress, “Its your father!”

“What!?” Nausius sat up and reached for his tunic.

“No time,” Buffy jumped to her feet and pulled Nausius up after her, “grab your stuff and go, make sure your father doesn’t see you.”

“But why?” Nausius tried to explain that his father wouldn’t mind, but Buffy hustled him off into the bushes.

“Dominus!” Buffy cried as Ludricus Sextus walked around a bush and came into view, “What can I do for you?”

At the moment Buffy would have done just about anything for the senator; he’d saved her from trying to explain to Nausius that what they’d just done was more to do with lust than love; she’d simply needed to feel a man touching her because she missed her dead lover Caius. 

“Oh good there you are,” Sextus smiled and didn’t seem to notice Buffy’s flustered state or how her dress was on crookedly, “I want you to do something for me…”

“Of course, dominus,” Buffy walked over to Sextus and knelt down in front of him and started to search through his toga, not immediately finding what she was looking for she asked, “Is there a key for this thing?”

“Not that, girl,” Ludricus cried, “well at least not just now. No I want you to do something else.”

“You do?” Buffy sat back on her heels and wondered what her dominus could possibly want her to do.

“Yes,” Ludricus nodded as he gazed self importantly across the garden as if it were the forum in Rome. “As you may remember I’m giving my key note speech about sin and vice in the forum this afternoon.”

“Yes, dominus?” Buffy wondered if she should get up but decided to stay where she was.

“I thought it would be good for my standing with the plebes if I was seen in the company of the famous and popular, Buffitrix!” Ludricus explained, “Remind people who owns’ you and such like, you see?”

“Ah, I see,” Buffy nodded her head, she did in fact see; Ludricus wanted a little reflected glory, let the mob see who looked after their arena idol.

“Yes,” Ludricus smiled at his own cleverness, “if you could wear a nice dress and some jewellery, this will show the people what a good fellow I am and how well I look after you.”

“Of course,” Buffy agreed from down by Ludricus’ waist, “not a problem.”

“Now if you wouldn’t mind?” Ludricus asked hopefully as he looked down into Buffy’s face; she looked up at him and frowned a little.

“Oh, yeah sure!” Buffy remembered why she was down there and started to search through Ludricus’ toga again, after shifting what felt like miles of material, she looked up at her dominus, “Hey, do you mind giving me a hand here? I might get lost if I go in alone!”

0=0=0=0

Once again I’m not responsible for the poetry.

Notes on, FORTUNA, the Roman Goddess of Chance and Good Luck.

Wearing a blindfold to make sure she's completely random and impartial, Fortuna’s symbol is the Wheel of Fortune, give it a spin and see if you win! 

When the Romans were looking for a Good Luck Goddess, they took a chance on the Greek Goddess TYCHE, who's function was to bring random good luck. With a fresh supply of dice and a new name, the revamped FORTUNA became extremely popular among the Roman betting community. 

FORTUNA's name actually means 'Lot Distributor' — because at her temple there was lots on offer. Card games, fruit machines, roulette...between games, visitors would draw the lots and priests would use them to interpret the future. So, despite what you might have heard, gambling is really quite respectable. It was good enough for Caesar in his Palace, wasn't it? 

As in ancient times, FORTUNA is still very popular in the big city today, where she has temples, casinos, and the Wheel Of Fortuna television game show. The Horn of Plenty could be yours! Unlimited cornucopias to be won! Place your bets and take a chance now! Just make sure the Odds and the Gods are on your side.

Notes taken from; www.godchecker.com


	13. Chapter 13

13.

_Buffitrix you’re a cute girl, strong girl.  
Fightin’ in the arena gonna take on the world today.  
You got blood on yo’ face,  
You’re like a chariot race,  
Wavin’ your gladius all over the place_

_Singing;  
She will, she will, kill you!  
Everybody;  
She will, she will, KILL YOU!  
Come along and…  
She will, she will, **KILL YOU!**_

Attributed to the famous Pompeian poet and playwright, Nausius Sextus.

0=0=0=0

**The House of Sextus.**

Running into her little room, Buffy quickly pulled off her work dress, before pouring water into her wash basin and giving herself a quick wash. Drying herself off she was just in time to see, Sopia, Ammonia’s hand maid, slide in through the doorway.

“Sopia!” Buffy gasped in surprise as she stood naked in front of the older woman, “What are…?”

“Dominus, sent me to help you dress,” Sopia looked around the small cell with disdain, although she was a slave, she had a much better room downstairs near her mistress. “Where do you keep your clothes?”

A little overawed by the woman, Sopia was in her late twenties and was one of those women Buffy naturally felt nervous around, she sort of reminded her of one of her elementary school teachers. Pointing to some hooks on the wall behind the door, Buffy clutched her towel to her chest and felt about seven. Searching through Buffy’s small collection of dresses, Sopia made scornful noises at the back of her throat as she disdainfully threw discarded items onto Buffy’s bed.

“You may not have much taste or fashion sense,” Sopia announced with even more disdain than before, “but at least you buy well made clothes,” she held up Buffy’s second best dress, a rather nice blue one that had been Buffy’s favourite until she’d bought the red one, “this’ll have to do, here put it on.”

Doing as she was told Buffy put on the dress and stood in front of Sopia waiting to be given marks out of ten. The woman hummed and muttered to herself for a moment before pronouncing Buffy ‘adequate’. The next ten minutes were spent with Sopia fussing with Buffy’s hair before she gave up and told her to wear a scarf over her head. Lastly came the jewellery. Without comment Sopia had Buffy put on two heavy gold coloured bracelets, one on each of her wrists. Around her neck she wore a pendant with a blue stone in its setting. Finally Sopia slipped half a dozen rings on Buffy’s fingers and pronounced her good to go. 

“It’s the best I can do,” Sopia admitted with a sigh, “if I’d had more time I could have done a better job.”

With her self-esteem in tatters; Buffy had always thought she’d had good taste in clothes. Somehow, Sopia made her feel like a backwoods Hillbilly, Buffy went downstairs to wait for Ludricus Sextus to arrive and take her over to the forum. Waiting in the hallway behind the front door, Buffy was pleased to see Lurcio come over and join her.

“You look nice, Trix,” Lurcio smiled, there-by saving the last tattered remnants of Buffy’s self-confidence.

“Oh thank-you Lurcio,” Buffy felt like kissing the man for soothing her badly bruised ego, but she held herself back, “Dominus wants to show me off to the plebes, show them how well he looks after me.”

“Well,” Lurcio cast an appreciative eye over Buffy once more, “he should achieve something with that, unlike with this speech,” Lurcio patted the leather satchel he carried, “to be honest he’s got no chance of getting anywhere with it.”

“Isn’t it any good,” Buffy frowned, “the speech I mean.”

“Oh the speech is fine,” Lurcio admitted, “it’s just the content you see?”

Buffy raised a questioning eyebrow encouraging Lurcio to go on.

“Well,” Lurcio twisted his hands together, “an anti-vice campaign?” Lurcio sighed sadly, “I mean, like that’s going to work in Pompeii?”

“Totally,” Buffy agreed; when she’d visited Rome, Buffy had always thought the place was pretty wild, but Pompeii beat it hands down.

It wasn’t organised vice, Buffy told herself, in fact it was very disorganised vice. But, everyone seemed to join in with great gusto, making up with enthusiasm what they lacked in skill. It made the place a pretty interesting town to live in and then there were all the lust demons. They probably helped make Pompeii the way it was, but Buffy couldn’t help admitting that she’d miss the place if she ever had to leave.

“Ah, there you are!” Called Ludricus Sextus as he walked into the hall dressed in his best senatorial toga.

“What does he mean, ‘there you are’?” Lurcio whispered out of the side of his mouth, “We’ve been here for ages.”

“He’s the boss,” Buffy whispered back, then more loudly to Ludricus, “Yes,” she smiled brightly, “here we are, Dominus.”

“Good, good,” Ludricus nodded his head absent-mindedly before looking at Lurcio, “you have the speech?”

“Yes Dominus,” Lurcio patted the satchel once again before whispering to Buffy, “for all the good it’ll do.”

“And Trix,” Ludricus looked Buffy up and down, “you look very nice.”

Dusting itself down, Buffy’s ego got up off the ground as her self-confidence re-inflated itself.

“Thank-you, Dominus,” Buffy had to stop herself from throwing herself to her knees in front of her Dominus; for one thing it would be undignified and for another there wasn’t the time for her to say ‘thank-you’ properly.

“Come along,” Ludricus led the way out of the front door, “no time to lose!”

The Forum was on the other side of town by the Amphitheatre and so it was a long walk. It would however give the news that the famous Buffitrix was out and about time to travel, so people would be able to come and see her and see how well her Dominus cared for her. A simple walk would garner Ludricus some political support and let Buffy show off just a little in front of her public.

0=0=0=0

**The Forum.**

Having left Harmonia in charge of the girls, Cordelia had headed out to try and find out where and who was keeping Buffy. Just at the moment, Dawn was in no fit state to do much of anything, which was why she’d left Harmonia in charge. What with her pregnancy and having seen her sister do all that stuff in the arena the day before, Dawn was in a bit of a daze and her decision making skills weren’t up to her usual high standards. Cordelia knew that her own decision making weren’t brilliant, which was why she left most of it to Dawn, so having her ‘boss’, as it were, out of the game made her feel a little uneasy.

So, in the spirit of getting it over with quickly, Cordy had come down to the Forum to start her investigation into the where abouts of one short, blonde, gladiatrix. There was one place that she way almost sure she’d find the answers she wanted and that was at the offices of the Arena Authority, which was where she was heading right now. 

Walking into the cool little office, Cordy looked around, at first sight the room looked empty and she was just about to leave when a voice she knew called out to her.

“Cordelia!” A young man appeared from under a desk where he’d been taking a nap, “How nice to see you again, you’re looking well.”

“Thank-you, Fabius Horatius,” Cordelia put on one of her brightest smiles, “you look well too.”

Cordelia gave a little internal sigh, Fabius Horatius was a real hot looking guy, just the sort of guy she would have dated back in Sunnydale. But, ever since that night when Dawn and herself had done ‘it’ together, she’d sort of lost interest in guys in ‘that’ way. Okay, she could appreciate that he was handsome, but other than that she felt no urges towards him. However, this didn’t stop her from leading him on, just a little. Walking over to the counter that cut the room in half, Cordelia rested her elbows on the surface and leaned forward giving Fabius a good view down the front of her rather loose fitting dress.

“So, what can I do for the beautiful Cordelia?” Fabius made no secret of where his eyes were looking and the fact that he wanted to bed Cordelia given half a chance.

“I need some information,” Cordelia asked slowly as she played seductively with the neckline of her dress.

“Yes,” gasped Fabius his eyes by now riveted to Cordy’s breasts, “anything.”

“That gladiatrix girl…what’s her name?” Cordy began.

“Buffitrix?” Fabius supplied.

“That’s her,” Cordy nodded, “her Dominus asked me how much it would cost him to hire the troupe for a night. But I was in such a rush I’ve totally forgotten his name!”

“Oh that’s easy,” Fabius actually looked into Cordy’s face for a moment, “You want Senator Ludricus Hyginus Sextus.”

Frowning a little, Cordelia thought about the man’s name, she was sure she’d heard it before. The memory came to her in a blinding flash; the little Greek girl who’d been giving Dawn back rubs had mentioned she sometimes worked at the Sextus household and that house was only a few steps up the street from where Dawn and herself lived.

“Thank-you!” Cordelia reached across the counter, took hold of the top of Fabius’ tunic and pulled him close, “You’re a life saver,” she told him before she kissed him firmly on the lips.

With a wave over her shoulder, Cordelia headed for the door. Now she knew who owned Buffy it would be easy enough to track her down, particularly as it appeared she only lived a few steps away from her own home. Pushing her way through the crowds, Cordy noticed a bit of a commotion near the entrance to the forum. Listening to the whispers that ran through the crowd, Cordelia began to think that the gods were smiling on her (so she immediately became suspicious). Not only had she found Buffy’s probable location, it also sounded like she was here in the forum now!

Elbowing her way to the front of the crowd, Cordy found herself looking at an older man in a senatorial toga. A couple of steps behind him walked a young woman in a nice dress (Cordy didn’t think much of her jewellery choices) who was accompanied by a man, probably the Senator’s steward or something. The people around Cordy who jostled her to get a better look at the young woman all had one name on their lips, Buffitrix.

“Buffy!” Cordelia called as she tried to keep near her old schoolmate as the crowd tried to push her out of the way. “Buffy!” Cordy called louder as Buffy appeared not to have heard her, “It’s me, Cordelia!”

0=0=0=0

“Thank-you,” Buffy smiled as people reached out to touch the hem of her dress or scarf, “You’re too kind, thank-you.”

Buffy loved this, it made her feel so wanted and not at all like the freak she’d appeared to be at school. Here people really appreciated you stabbing things and people, not like at home where her parents had locked her in a mental institution and no doubt the police would have had something to say about all the criminals she’d killed. Life just hadn’t been fair up time, but here, here she was a famous and a hero and she loved it!

“…delia!” The fragment of the familiar name came to Buffy’s ears over noise of the crowd.

Hesitating, Buffy stopped and looked around, she saw a dark haired girl in a simple dress trying to push her way through the crowd towards her. Narrowing her eyes in concentration, Buffy stared at the girl, there was something about her that…

“Buffy!” Called the girl.

“Oh my Goddess!” Buffy gasped, no one here called her ‘Buffy’ anymore, this must be someone from her past, Buffy took a step or two towards the girl, “Cordelia!?”

Pushing people out of the way, Buffy suddenly found herself standing in front of Cordelia Chase, a girl who’d not exactly been her friend back at Sunnydale High. In fact she’d been pretty mean to her at times. Buffy ran her eye quickly over Cordelia, she noted the simple dress and the slave collar, Buffy couldn’t help but smile; Cordelia Chase a slave, that was just so freaking fantastic! Misreading Buffy’s smile, Cordelia closed the last few inches between them and threw her arms around Buffy’s shoulders.

“Thank the gods I found you!” Cordelia said over the puzzled mutterings of the crowd, “You’re sister’s here you really need to see her.”

“Sister?” Buffy pulled herself free from Cordelia’s grasp, “What do you mean, sister? I haven’t got a sister!”

Pushing Cordelia away and thinking this was just another of her cruel jokes, Buffy turned to make her way back to her Dominus and Lurcio. It was only then that her eye was drawn to the ripple effect of the crowd as several men made their way towards her master.

0=0=0=0

“Alright men,” Tribune Crixus said; he and his men were standing in the corner of the forum waiting for Ludricus Sextus to arrive, “he’s only got his steward with him and I think that’s his daughter, this should be easy.”

Like five sharks moving through a shoal of fish the five disguised soldiers made their way towards their target. Pulling his sword from under his cloak, Crixus smiled, once Sextus was out of the way they’d snatch his speech and make a run for it. They’d cut down anyone that got in their way and they’d soon be safe. After all who’d suspect an officer in the Roman army of this sort of sordid political assassination?

Pushing the last couple of people out of the way, Crixus raised his sword ready to strike. The old fool, Sextus hadn’t even noticed him and his men’s approach he wasn’t even looking in the right direction he was too busy shaking the hands of tradesmen and kissing babies. Just as he was about to plunge his sword into Ludricus Sextus’ foolish heart, Crixus found himself face to face with the senator’s daughter. He frowned as the world seemed to slow down around him; this couldn’t be the old fool’s daughter. Word on the street was the girl spent so much time flat on her back with her present lover between her legs that she’d lost the ability to walk.

Feeling something like a vice attach itself to his sword wrist, Crixus noticed the blonde hair that stuck out from under the girl’s head scarf. In an instant he saw her cold eyes looking into his own, he recognised the oddly shaped nose.

“Buffitrix!” He gasped knowing that he was going to die any moment now.

“The same!” Buffy smiled up into the assassin’s eyes, “And you know what?” She didn’t wait for an answer, “I kill them all!”

Squeezing the man’s wrist, Buffy felt his bones start to shatter. With a cry of pain Crixus let go of his sword and watched it fall to the ground with helpless eyes. Snatching the falling sword out of mid air, Buffy swept it up and around as she cut down another man who was menacing her Dominus. Pushing the disarmed man to one side, Buffy concentrated on defeating the attackers who still had weapons and appeared interested in cutting down her master.

Amid the panicking crowd, Cordelia stood like a rock in a storm tossed sea. Watching as Buffy quickly and efficiently cut down the men with swords, Cordy couldn’t help but think, ‘same old Buffy Summers’. After two of their number had been killed and another two wounded the assassins decided that it might be wise to be elsewhere very quickly and started to run off. 

A man, clutching a bloody arm to his chest, ran towards Cordelia, her hand already through the slit in the side of her dress she took hold of the punch dagger Dawn had bought her when they’d lived in Tarentum. The man ran into her and without really thinking about it Cordy pulled the knife and rammed it into the assassin’s belly. Eyes and mouth wide open with surprise the dying man clutched at Cordy for support. Stepping back she let him fall to the blood wet flagstones of the forum. Rapidly hiding the bloody knife in the folds of her dress, Cordelia turned around and walked away quickly.

This was obviously a bad time to make contact with Buffy, she plainly had other things on her mind right now. Thinking it was more important to get back to Dawn and tell her what she’d found out, Cordelia walked out on to the street, ignoring the people who stared at her bloody dress, she headed for home.

0=0=0=0

“Dominus!” Buffy called once all the assassins where either dead or run off, “Are you alright?”

“I’m fine, thanks to you Trix,” Ludricus stood as Lurcio dusted him off and straightened his toga, he smiled, “My anti-vice campaign must be hitting home!”

“What!?” Buffy and Lurcio chorused.

“Yes, yes!” Ludricus turned and continued on his way towards the senate rooms, “If the opposition are willing to try and kill me I must be hitting them where it hurts!”

Glancing at each other, Buffy and Lurcio shrugged and rolled their eyes, “Silly old fool,” they whispered together before running off after their Dominus.

“You’re still going to make your speech?” Buffy asked as they entered the senate house; Buffy cast her eyes around the wide entrance lobby on the look out for more assassins.

“Of course, of course,” Ludricus strode across the marble floor towards the door of the senate; he came to a halt suddenly and turned to face Buffy. “Trix I want you to do something…”

“What, here in front of all these people?” Buffy whispered as she prepared to get down on her knees.

“No not that!” Ludricus replied, “Well not just now anyway, what I want you to do is go outside and keep a lookout for any more attackers…”

“But…” Buffy started to object.

“Don’t worry,” Ludricus patted her reassuringly on her shoulder, “I’m safe enough in here, now run along like a good girl.”

“Well,” Buffy pouted, “if you’re sure?”

“Don’t worry I’ll have Lurcio with me,” Ludricus explained, “he’ll throw himself on any more assassin’s swords.”

“I will!?” Lurcio said aghast at the suggestion.

“There, Trix,” Ludricus smiled, “Lurcio is quite willing to sacrifice himself to save me.”

“Okay then,” Buffy agreed reluctantly.

“Come Lurcio!” Ludricus continued on his way towards the senate chamber, “No time to waste!”

Striding into the chamber Ludricus knew that now was the time to strike. All he need do was to read his speech, call for a vote on the measures he wanted to bring in and they’d be passed. The attempted assassination would work for him, if he spoke up now he’d get the sympathy vote and all his ideas would pass into law. Catching the eye of the speaker, Ludricus moved to the centre of the floor.

“The House recognises, Senator Ludricus Hyginus Sextus,” intoned the speaker.

“Thank-you Mr Speaker,” Ludricus stopped in the centre of the house, ran his eye over senators sitting on their benches and smiled; holding out his hand he felt Lurcio slip the scroll into his palm.

“Friends, Romans, Pompeians,” Ludricus began as he started to unroll the scroll, “lend be your feet!” Unsure what came next, Ludricus started to read from the scroll, “We, the undersigned, solemnly agree that after the assassination of the First Citi…”

His voice fading away to nothing as Ludricus stared at the words on the scroll. His first thought was that this wasn’t his speech, his second thought was that this was a list containing the names of a hundred senators of Rome. His third thought was a little jumbled as words like ‘assassinate’ and ‘seize control’ and ‘crush any opposition’ flashed before his eyes.

Making an incoherent noise like a goat in distress, Ludricus Sextus ran from the senate chamber still clutching the incriminating scroll in his hand. With Lurcio hard on his heels, Ludricus made it outside, looking around frantically he saw Buffy idly tossing the sword she’d taken from the assassin from one hand to the other.

“Thank Jove you’re still here, Trix,” Ludricus gasped as he ran over to where Buffy stood, “I’m in great need of your skills!”

“Like I said, here in the forum?” Buffy frowned, “Gotta say Dominus I don’t think it’s a good idea not in front of all these people,” Buffy started to get down on her knees again, “but you’re the boss!”

“No! Not those skills!” Ludricus pulled Buffy to her feet once more, “Your other skills,” Ludricus saw only confusion on Buffy’s face, he felt he should explain, “your fighting skills!”

“Oh those skills!” Buffy relaxed, “What’s up, more assassins?”

“Too bleedin’ right,” Lurcio spoke up for the first time.

“Yes, yes, they’re everywhere,” Ludricus gasped, “infamy, infamy, they’ve all got it in for me! Get me home Trix, please!”

0=0=0=0


	14. Chapter 14

14.

**The House of Sextus.**

Crashing noisily through the front door, Buffy chivvied her Dominus and Lurcio into the house. Once everyone was safely inside she turned to look out over the square before slamming the door and locking and bolting it securely.

“I don’t think we were followed.” Buffy announced breathlessly, “Lurcio get the dominus into the atrium.”

Lurcio helped Ludricus through to the atrium where the old senator lay down on a couch, he was obviously deeply shocked by his recent experiences, Buffy watched over him in concern.

“He looks like he’s going into shock,” Buffy told Lurcio, “you better get the Domina while I loosen his clothes.”

“Loosen his clothes?” Lurcio asked with a puzzled frown, “If they were any looser they’d fall off,” realisation suddenly dawned, “oh, I see what you mean, I’ll get the Domina.”

Heading towards Lady Ammonia’s quarters, Lurcio almost collided with the woman in question as she was coming the other way. Having heard all the noise she’d come to find out what all the fuss was about, she screamed when she saw her husband; Nausius followed in her wake and went to his fathers side to examine him while his mother over acted dreadfully.

“Ludricus!” Ammonia cried as she hurried over to be at her husband’s side, “Are you going to die and leave me all your wealth and lands and position? A poor, rich, widow at the mercy of every strong, muscular opportunist?”

“I don’t think so mother,” Nausius announced, fairly sure that his father would survive.

“Oh,” Ammonia replied with more than a little disappointment; it was only then that she noticed Buffy, “Trix? What are doing?”

“Hmmm,” Buffy replied from under Ludricus’ toga.

“Well, will you be long?” Ammonia wanted to know.

“Hmmm-Hmmph,” Buffy replied.

“Don’t speak with your mouth full,” Ammonia crossed her arms under her breasts and waited for Buffy to finish what she was doing.

“Hmmph,” Buffy apologised for her slip in manners.

A couple of moments later Ludricus gave a grunt followed by a satisfied sigh, Buffy reappeared from under Ludricus’ toga.

“Finished!” She smiled happily.

“Good,” Ammonia gave Buffy a tight smile before continuing, “Now would someone mind telling me what’s going on?”

“Good idea,” Buffy agreed, the slayer in her was telling her to take charge, “Lurcio, what’s going on?”

“How the Hades should I know?” Lurcio shrugged helplessly.

“Close all the doors,” Ludricus cried, having been revived by Buffy’s attentions, “bar all the windows! I’ve just discovered a dastardly plot!”

At his master’s command and not without some little relief, Lurcio sneaked off to check on the doors and windows.

“A plot to assassinate the First Citizen!” Ludricus gasped out.

“What? When?” Ammonia frowned thinking her husband must have finally gone senile.

“As soon as he arrives here in Pompeii,” Ludricus explained.

“Oh, that’s rubbish,” Ammonia reassured her husband, “I just wrote him a note inviting him to dinner.”

0=0=0=0

**The House of Lecherous Maximus.**

“So, Ludricus Sextus has discovered your plot,” Lady Daili, the Proconsul’s young and attractive wife said from her couch as her husband paced back and forth across the room, “What are you going to do about it?”

“That’s what I’m trying to work out,” Lecherous replied angrily. “The way I see it is this,” he continued in a calmer tone, “Ludricus Sextus is a fool but he’s an honest fool and he’ll be able to think of only one course of action…”

0=0=0=0

**The House of Sextus.**

“There’s only on course of action I can take,” Ludricus had risen from his couch and was now pacing the atrium as he explained his plan. “I shall go forthwith to the Proconsul’s palace…”

0=0=0=0

**The House of Lecherous Maximus.**

“…and confront me in the name of the First Citizen…” the Proconsul explained to his wife.

0=0=0=0

**The House of Sextus.**

“…and demand his resignation as Proconsul of Pompeii…” Ludricus was getting quite excited about his plan now.

0=0=0=0

**The House of Lecherous Maximus.**

“…and then hand me over to the authorities for trial,” the Proconsul gave his wife a calculating look.

0=0=0=0

**The House of Sextus.**

“Fine!” Agreed Ammonia from her couch, “But doesn’t that seem a rather obvious course of action?”

“On the contrary,” Ludricus gave his wife an earnest look, “I know the Proconsul, he’d never believe I’d go through with it!”

0=0=0=0

**The House of Lecherous Maximus.**

“Brilliant,” Daili smiled seductively.

“And you,” The Proconsul rested his hand on his wife’s bare shoulder, “my sensuous lady, will receive him.”

“And entertain him in your absence,” Daili purred as she stretched like a cat, “I think I could do that.”

“Well you’ve had enough practice,” Proconsul Lecherous reminded her.

“And then you will return,” Lady Daili continued, “and find me in his arms and…”

“I’ll do what any red blooded Roman man would do,” Proconsul Lecherous laughed evilly, “kill him!” Lecherous stroked the top of his wife’s breast, “Does that meet with your approval, my dear?”

“One thing,” Lady Daili smiled seductively up into her husband’s face, “Ludricus Sextus is an old man, don’t return too quickly, please?”

0=0=0=0

**The House of Sextus.**

“Great plan!” Buffy, not noted for her own planning successes, agreed, “This sounds like there might be some sword work,” she gestured with the sword she’d taken from the assassin earlier, “I better go get changed,” Buffy noticed the look Lady Ammonia was giving her, “hey, this is my second best dress,” Buffy explained, “I don’t want to get blood on it.”

“Oh, alright,” Ammonia saw the sense in Buffy’s words, “run along.”

Leaving the room, Buffy ran upstairs to her cell, leaving the family alone. The three Sextus’ looked at each other slightly embarrassed by their close proximity (they weren’t a close family). Finally, Nausius couldn’t stand the strain any the more.

“I’m off,” he announced heading for the door.

“Where are you going?” His mother demanded.

“Erm,” Nausius paused in the doorway, “I’ll…I’ll just go and see if Trix needs any help getting changed.”

“Oh, alright dear,” Ammonia agreed as her son disappeared out through the door.

0=0=0=0

Up in her room, Buffy quickly removed her jewellery and then just as she was about to take off her dress, the door burst open to reveal Nausius Sextus. Entering Buffy’s room he closed the door behind him and leaned against it.

“Nausius!” Buffy exclaimed half in and half out of her dress, “What…?”

“I couldn’t take it any more,” Nausius explained, “the silences, the looks and anyway I still want to have sex with you!”

“What?” Buffy pulled her dress off all the way then stood in front of Nausius clutching it to her chest, “Do you really think this is the right time?”

“Why not?” Nausius shrugged, “It’s not as if my father’s actually going to _do_ anything, he never does.”

“He doesn’t?” Buffy said a little disappointedly, she’d been looking forward to a little _live practice_ with her sword; in the arena she’d noticed that her technique hadn’t been up to her usual high standard.

Nausius shook his head.

“Anyway,” Buffy walked across the room to hang up her dress, “I told you before I can’t risk getting pregnant. If I get pregnant,” she explained, “I can’t fight and if I can’t fight the city gets overrun with demons.”

“I still have my sister’s charm,” Nausius held up the little gold bracelet.

“You do?” Buffy asked with more interest than she’d really meant to show, “But-but it can’t work,” Buffy continued uncertainly; she’d hung up her dress and was holding one of her short work tunics in her hand, “I mean how could that stop me getting pregnant?” she asked with just a hint of hope in her voice.

“It works for my sister,” Nausius replied, “every time…”

“You sure it’s not worn out?” Buffy asked knowing how often Erotica must rely on it.

“Sure,” Nausius reassured her.

“No-no I couldn’t,” Buffy said without any great conviction, she also didn’t make any move to put on her tunic; after a short struggle with her conscious Buffy dropped her tunic on the floor, “What the Hades!” she headed towards her bed, “I could be dead tomorrow.”

Sitting on the edge of her bed Buffy kicked off her sandals as Nausius started to pull off his tunic.

“That thing better work,” she held out her hand for the charm as she lay down and got herself comfortable, “what do I do with it?”

“Just put it on ‘round your wrist,” Nausius explained as he threw his tunic to one side and passed Buffy the charm.

“Right,” Buffy finished fastening the charm to her wrist, she lay back and opened her legs, “This better be worth waiting for…”

0=0=0=0

**Fifteen minutes later.**

“Wow!” Buffy gasped as Nausius rolled from on top of her, “That was just…” for a moment she was lost for words and went with, “Wow! You can definitely do that to me again whenever you like, young Dominus!” she said with a happy grin, “You’ve certainly got over your premature ejaculation problems.”

“Oh,” Nausius said shyly as he played with one of Buffy’s nipples, “that’s mainly down to you and all the sucking, I also found a ‘Self Help’ book on the subject, ‘Coitus Major Gaudium’ it was called. It had some really helpful illustrations.”

Frowning Buffy translated the words in her head, she came up with, ‘More Joy of Sex’ or something close.

“Hey look,” Buffy sat up, much as she’d like to lie in her bed with Nausius and cuddle, there was work to be done, “we better go check on your father.”

“I suppose,” Nausius agreed reluctantly, he was slightly disappointed, hadn’t the book said girls liked to cuddle afterwards; he’d been sorta looking forward to that bit after all the sex.

“Look, you get dressed and check on your father,” Buffy instructed, “while I get cleaned up here, okay?”

“Alright,” Nausius agreed as he reluctantly got up and pulled on his tunic before heading downstairs again.

After Nausius had gone, Buffy sat on the edge of her bed and took off the charm. Yes it had been worth waiting for; Buffy wasn’t a virgin by any means, both Caius and Eos had seen to that. But that had been the first time she’d ever actually been ‘penetrated’ by a man properly and yes, it had been fun and yes, she did want to do it again. For some reason she remembered what Sid the Dummy had said; ‘Once you’ve gone wood, nothings ever as good!’

“Yeah right, as if!” Buffy laughed as she got up, now she’d experienced both she knew which she preferred.

0=0=0=0

Arriving downstairs a few minutes later, Buffy heard a commotion coming from the Atrium.

“What’s wrong?” Buffy demanded as she rushed into the room her hand on the hilt of her sword.

“My father!” Nausius cried over the not overly convincing sobs of Lady Ammonia, “He actually did what he said he was going to do…!”

“You mean?” Buffy stood with her mouth open in shock.

“Close your mouth dear,” Lady Ammonia called through her tears, “it makes you look foolish and someone might put something in it,” before adding sotto-voice, “not that it seems to bother you.”

“Sorry?” Buffy glanced at Ammonia before looking back at Nausius hoping for some clarification.

“My father’s gone to confront Lecherous just like he said he would,” Nausius cried out.

“Then there’s no time to waste,” Buffy replied her jaw setting in her determination, “get Lurcio and we’ll go after him.”

“Why do we need Lurcio?” Nausius wanted to know.

“We might need a diversion,” Buffy explained.

“Oh I see,” Nausius nodded his head, “throw him onto the blades of our pursuers you mean?”

“Something like that,” Buffy agreed.

“What about me?” Lady Ammonia gasped, “Who’s going protect me?”

“You want Lurcio to protect you?” Buffy asked.

“Oh yes, I see what you mean,” Ammonia glanced at the floor, “but I’ll still need someone to protect me and the house.”

“Hey,” Buffy crossed the floor and placed a comforting hand on her Domina’s shoulder, “look, Scrubba’s good with a carving knife and Sopia could wither any attacker with just a look, and if the worst came to the worst you could always throw your daughter at them.”

“Erotica?” Ammonia paused to think about this, “Yes, I see,” she nodded her head slowly, “as long as any attacker is a man she’d never let them get any further than her bed.”

“Right that’s settled,” Buffy turned to see Nausius and Lurcio enter the room; drawing her sword she pointed it in the general direction of the Proconsuls palace, “To the Sextus-mobile!”

0=0=0=0

**Inside the Proconsul’s Palace.**

After a rather disappointing journey on which Buffy learnt two important lessons; first there was no ‘Sextus-mobile’ and they’d had to walk. Second it didn’t matter if you were on an important mission to save the life of your Dominus, demons still wanted to fight you. Three Lust Demons, one Juggling Demon and a rather rare vampire later, the three intrepid rescuers found themselves inside the palace outside the door leading to the proconsul’s private chambers.

“Guards?” Nausius whispered.

“Oh, don’t worry about them,” Buffy smiled as she wiped the blood from her sword before replacing it in its sheath. “Lurcio, can you see anything?”

Right at that moment, Lurcio was bending down trying to see through the crack between the doors.

“Friends, Romans Pompeians!” Ludricus Sextus’ voice drifted to his would-be rescuers through the door, “Lend me your AAAGH!”

“Well, that proves he’s totally in there,” Buffy pointed out.

“Can we get in?” Nausius wanted to know.

“No Dominus,” Lurcio tried the door, “it’s locked.”

“I can break it down!” Buffy offered.

“No!” Nausius asserted his authority, “There must be another way in.”

“Spoil sport,” Buffy mumbled dejectedly, “No one ever lets me break down doors or anything!”

“The slaves entrance,” Lurcio suggested, “from the kitchens it should be down here some where,” he pointed to the far end of the corridor.

“Lead on Lurcio!” Cried Nausius as they all headed off down the corridor after Lurcio.

0=0=0=0

Inside the room, while his rescuers were getting into position, Senator Ludricus Hyginus Sextus lay on the couch next to Lady Daili. The Proconsul’s wife was wearing a very revealing red dress as she sipped her wine and looked deeply into Ludricus’ eyes.

“Oh, Lady Daili,” Ludricus sighed contentedly as his hand traced invisible lines up and down her thigh, “It’s wonderful to have a woman like you allied to me, I couldn’t do it alone, you know?”

Ludricus had been discussing his anti-vice campaign with Lady Daili; she’d told him she was a great supporter of his plans, being very interested in vice of all kinds.

“Who wants too?” Daili replied as her hand sort entrance to Ludricus’ toga.

“To have a woman beside me in your position,” Ludricus continued, “powerful, beautiful…desirable!”

“Available?” Daili moved in for the kill.

“Lady Daili!” Ludricus cried as his hands roamed urgently over the woman’s body, “we’ll carry all before us!”

“Oh! Ludricus,” Daili gasped, “you are so strong and virile.”

“It must be the wine,” Ludricus passed Daili a goblet of wine as he took one himself, “it loosens me up, you know?”

“Really,” Daili purred, “have some more…”

0=0=0=0

Having rendered the slaves in the kitchen unconscious, Buffy put down the rolling pin and smiled at Nausius.

“Well done, Trix,” Nausius ran over to where a door opened onto the room containing his father, he looked carefully around the corner into the room beyond. “Right, my father’s in there with Lady Daili, Lurcio…”

“Yes young Dominus?” Lurcio stepped forward reluctantly.

“When they call for more wine,” Nausius continued to explain, “you take them a jug of the strongest wine. When they’ve drunk it and fall asleep, Trix and myself will go in and rescue my father.”

“Why does it have to be me?” Lurcio complained, “Why can’t Trix do it?”

“Because, I might need her to cut our way out of here,” Nausius explained as Buffy brightened visibly at the prospect of more sword play, “and I’m the master and you’re the slave, is that a good enough reason?”

“I suppose so,” Lurcio admitted with a heavy heart.

“SLAVE!” Lady Daili’s voice came to them from the room beyond, “More wine.”

Picking up a large jug of wine, Buffy thrust it into Lurcio’s hands and propelled him towards the door.

“You’re on!” Buffy whispered as she pushed him out into the room.

0=0=0=0

“May I un-entwine you?” Lurcio asked as he moved the arms that held the wine goblets to where he could get at them.

After pouring the wine into the goblets he watched as his Master and Lady Daili drank, all the time hoping that the wine would put them to sleep quickly.

“Go away slave,” Lady Daili ordered.

Not actually going away very far, Lurcio crossed the room and put the jug down on a table. Turning around again he was just in time to be hit by first, Lady Daili’s goblet and moments later by his master’s. The goblets were of a heavy design and Lurcio cried out in pain as they hit him. Lurcio’s cries of distress didn’t seem to do anything to lessen the couple’s ardour and Ludricus was soon climbing on top of Lady Daili as she giggled girlishly. However, their passion was never to be consummated as the wine slowly took effect and they slumped drunkenly into each others arms.

Moving quickly and quietly Nausius and Buffy crept into the room, grabbed Ludricus by the ankles and pulled him off Lady Daili and onto the floor.

“You’ll have to take his place,” Nausius told Lurcio as he helped Buffy put his father on her back.

“What!?” Lurcio gasped.

“Look it won’t be for long,” Nausius told him, “just until Trix and myself get my father away from here, now get on top of her and be a man for once.”

“Oh alright then,” Lurcio complained as he climbed on top of Lady Daili with an ill will, “in for a dupondius in for a sestertius I suppose.”

Lying on top of Lady Daili who was moaning quietly, Lurcio watched as his Master and Trix closed the door behind them.

“Give us a slow count to a hundred,” Nausius called just before he shut the door.

“Oh alright then,” Lurcio sighed and started to count, “aye, aye-aye, aye-aye-aye, aye-vee…”

**Some time later.**

“El, el-aye, el-aye-aye…” Ludricus’ counting was interrupted by the door bursting open and the Proconsul entering the room at the head of several guards led by the injured Tribune Crixus.

“AH-HA!” Proconsul Lecherous exclaimed, “Betrayed in my own house!”

“My husband!” Lady Daili cried playing her part in the farce, “I am undone!”

“Well don’t look at me,” Lurcio replied, “I didn’t undo her.”

“Vile adulterer,” Lecherous snarled, as a guard brought in extra torches to shed more light on the sorry scene, “for this you will die!”

“But sir,” Lurcio begged trying to save his miserable life, “I was only obeying orders!”

“What!?” Lecherous signalled to his guards, “Kill him!”

Drawing his sword with his left hand, Crixus advanced on the unfortunate Lurcio.

“Hang on,” Crixus paused in his murderous advance, “I know this, for want of a better word, ‘man’.”

“What?” Lecherous demanded some explanation, “What’s going on?”

“Who is this!?” Demanded Lady Daili as she realised that the man sitting beside her wasn’t Ludricus Sextus.

“Its Ludricus Sextus’ slave,” Crixus explained, “Lurcio.”

“What are you doing here in place of your master?” Lecherous wanted to know.

“Well, you know how it is sir,” Lurcio pleaded, “I have to do _everything_ for him!”

“To the catacombs with him!” Lecherous ordered as several guards came forward and grabbed Lurcio by the arms. “little did you think that when you practiced this cruel deception on my wife you’d be dying for it.”

“Oh, no sir,” Lurcio pointed out, “she’s the one who was dying for it!”

“ENOUGH!” Cried Lecherous, “Take him away!”

With a wail of despair, Lurcio was dragged off to the catacombs.

0=0=0=0


	15. Chapter 15

15.

**The House of Aestatis, Sunday Night.**

“…at least this time she was protecting her Dominus,” Cordelia explained as she helped Dawn get into their bed.

“And that makes it okay?” Dawn replied miserably as she tried to get comfortable, “So this time when my sister was slicing and dicing people she was actually protecting the man who’d made her like that in the first place.”

“We don’t know that, Dawnie,” Cordelia looked down at Dawn and couldn’t help thinking, ‘by the gods she’s hot’!

“It’s obvious isn’t it?” Dawn pulled the sheets and blankets over her body cutting of Cordy’s view.

“We don’t know that,” Cordelia repeated as she walked around to her side of the bed, “for all we know that Ludricus Sextus guy might be trying to help Buffy.”

“Ha!” Dawn laughed disbelievingly; nothing Cordelia could say would make her believe that Sextus was trying to help Buffy. “He probably beats her and makes her do all sorts of really weird stuff in bed!”

“She didn’t look beaten or abused to me,” Cordy pointed out as she blew out all but one of the lamps, “even you said how healthy she looked in the arena.”

“He probably beats where it doesn’t show,” Dawn muttered.

“Hey,” Cordelia paused as she took off her dress, “in that outfit she was wearing in the arena there wasn’t many places left that didn’t show.” Hanging her dress up Cordy stood naked in the lamp light, “Look I don’t think she’s being forced to do…”

“But…!” Dawn tried to butt in but this was Cordelia she was talking to and the older girl just rolled right over her.

“Look, Dawn,” Cordy stood over the bed with her hands on her hips, “I don’t think you should make up your mind about Buffy until you’ve had a chance to talk to her. Now,” Cordelia sighed, “is there anything you want before I get into bed? Cup of water? A banana? A good spanking?” Cordy wasn’t sure what had made her say that, “A bed time story?”

“No, I’m good,” Dawn snuggled down under the covers and yawned, “You’re too good to me, Cordy.”

“I know,” Cordelia climbed into bed next to Dawn, “not that long ago I wouldn’t have given you the time of day.”

“Hmmm,” Dawn smiled as she drifted off to sleep.

Lying down and getting herself comfortable, Cordelia wished she could fall asleep as easily as Dawn could. When she’d got home from the forum everyone had fussed over her because of all the blood on her dress. After everybody had been reassured that none of it was hers, Cordy had taken Dawn aside to tell her about her brief encounter with Buffy. Describing those few seconds in minute detail, she’d left nothing out; what Buffy had been wearing, her opinion on Buffy’s jewellery choices, how Buffy’s skin and hair had looked, whether she was wearing too much make-up, all important things like that. Everything except one significant little detail; she’d not told Dawn about the part where Buffy had said that she didn’t have a sister.

That was something that could wait until tomorrow, it wasn’t the sort of thing you told a pregnant woman just before she went to bed; ‘By the way, your sister doesn’t know you’. Not even Cordelia was that insensitive; no it could all wait until tomorrow. But it needed to be said and said before Dawn went up to the Sextus house and demanded that they hand over her sister. Dawn had been quite adamant about confronting Senator Sextus and getting Buffy back.

Yawning, Cordelia rolled over on to her side, listening to Dawn’s slow breathing she thanked whatever gods there might be that Dawn had found her in that slave market in Jerusalem. Even after all their adventures together, Cordelia couldn’t imagine life without her friend. How things changed, Cordy told herself as her eyes grew heavy, had she know Dawn when she was just Buffy Summers’ little sister, she wouldn’t even have been a blip on her radar.

0=0=0=0

**The House of Sextus, Monday Morning.**

“Thank-you, thank-you, thank-you!” Buffy smothered Nausius’ face with kisses as they lay in his bed together, “That was so freaking fantastic!” Buffy gasped, “Can we do it again?”

“I don’t know why you’re thanking me,” Nausius fought off the hyper active slayer, “you did all of the work,” they’d been trying the ‘Trix on top’ position, “but I think I need to rest now.”

“Yeah, okay,” Buffy said slightly disappointed, why had she never let Caius do this stuff with her?

That was easy, Buffy lay on her back and stared at the ceiling; she’d been too scared about getting pregnant, that’s why she’d not let Caius have proper sex with her. Plus it would have really pissed off her dominus at the time, he’d been expecting to make a lot of money out of her and that wouldn’t happen if she was squeezing out a kid. Just for a moment she wondered what had happen to Lentulus Batiatus. He’d not been reported as among the dead when Spartacus had left the school in ashes. Perhaps the moaning old goat had managed to get away with his money and that slave girl he liked so much, what was her name now, Buffy frowned for a moment, yes, Varinia that was her. Smiling, Buffy hoped that her old master had got away; after all he wasn’t that bad a guy.

Talking about, ‘not that bad a guy’, Lurcio was still missing. Frowning Buffy suspected he might have been killed or captured by the Proconsul’s men. Chances were he was still alive; the Proconsul probably had some evil little plan in the pipeline. Maybe he’d arrange things so she’d have to kill Lurcio in the arena, now that would be evil.

“We need to rescue Lurcio,” Buffy announced suddenly.

“What now?” Nausius moaned from beside her, “Can’t it wait until later?”

“Oh yeah,” Buffy nodded her head, “but we better do it today.”

“Good,” Nausius mumbled as he hid his head under the pillow.

Yes, thought Buffy, things to do; first, rescue Lurcio, second kill the Proconsul, third have more sex with Nausius.

0=0=0=0

**The House of Arsenius, almost at the same time.**

“…don’t ya dare roll ya eyes at me my girl!” Faith’s hand itched to give her daughter, Fidie, a good slap, but she held on to her temper, instead she pointed towards the girl’s bedchamber. “Go to ya room and stay there, I’ll deal with ya later!”

Without a word and with only the softest of sighs, Fidelia the Younger turned away from her mother and headed off towards her room. The sigh might have been almost inaudible, but Faith had slayer hearing and she’d heard it clearly enough. Again her anger boiled up inside her chest and she fought to restrain her fury and from chasing after the girl and giving her the beating she so richly deserved. 

Being a slayer as well as a mother meant you had to be careful about punishing your kids; a slap in anger could break a child’s leg, so Faith had never hit any of her children. However, she was now starting to regret this where Fidie was concerned. What was wrong with the girl? Faith’d asked this question almost every day since the girl had turned ten; she was at her wits end, why couldn’t she be like her brother Marius or the twins Octavian and Octavia? Gods forbid that little Niobe should grow up like her sister.

Sighing heavily, Faith wondered what she was to do about her oldest daughter; she needed some help and advice. Sighing again, she wondered who she could turn to, she’d never had to ask anyone about this sort of stuff before. Marius had been a dream to bring up, no trouble at all. Her younger kids were still too young to be much of a problem and she had Sabia the nurse to help her, but Fidie… The answer came to Faith in a flash, of course, she smiled to herself; Ammonia had a daughter, she must know about how to handle girls, she’d go visit her today.

“SOLONIUS!” Faith yelled for her butler; the man appeared almost before his mistress had finished yelling his name.

“You yelled, Domina?” Solonius stood a few feet away from Faith with a superior look on his face.

“Yeah,” Faith got up from her couch, “I’m visiting Lady Ammonia today…”

“You are, Domina?” Solonius cocked his head quizzically to one side.

“Yeah, I am,” Faith frowned at the man for a moment.

“I was just wondering if that was wise in you present condition?” Solonius added solicitously.

“Yeah, I’ll be cool,” Faith continued with her orders before Solonius could think up any real objections to her going to Pompeii, “Look I’ll need some horses…”

“Domina intends to ride?” Solonius asked disapprovingly.

“Yeah right, I do,” again Faith frowned, “what’s wrong with that?”

“I’m sure, Domina knows best,” Solonius made it sound as if that statement was in question.

“Yeah I do,” Faith began to wonder why she bothered with servants; it was then she remembered what it had been like that first year she’d been married. “Now find my son, Marius and a couple of guard guys to come with, okay?”

“Indeed, Domina,” with an even more superior look, Solonius left the room to arrange things for his mistress.

0=0=0=0

**The Catacombs.**

Hanging from a pillar in the catacombs, Lurcio thanked the gods for small mercies; at least they’d hung him up the right way. After being found in the arms of the Proconsul’s wife, Lurcio had been left standing there all night chained by his wrists to the pillar and listening to the moans and cries of prisoners in other cells. The cell he was in must have been an ‘overflow’ cell because raw sewage appeared to overflow into it at regular intervals. Hearing the rattle of keys in the cell door, Lurcio turned his head in trepidation trying to see who it was, he breathed a sigh of relief when he saw it was only the jailer bring his bread and water.

“You’re in luck,” Lurcio called as the man locked the door behind him, “I’m in.”

“‘Ere’s y’bread,” the jailer put a stale crust of bread in Lurcio’s left hand, “an’ ‘ere’s y’water,” the jailer put a mug of water in his right hand and then took a step back before smiling at Lurcio “I’m spoiling you aren’t I?”

“Yes you are, aren’t I fortunate,” Lurcio looked from the jailer up to his left and right hands were his rations waited just out of reach, “breakfast in bed.”

“Well make y’self at home,” the jailer advised as he walked back towards the door.

“Thank-you,” Lurcio called to the man’s back, “would you mind closing the door on the way out, or were you born in a field?”

Once the jailer had gone, Lurcio tried to reach his crust of bread, it was no good it was out of reach, sighing he slipped his wrists from his shackles.

“This is ridiculous,” Lurcio bit into the hard piece of bread, “I’ll stave to death in here,” he walked carefully around his cell, “what a terrible place.” Letting out a cry that spoke of just how unfair he thought his life was, Lurcio rushed over to the door and grabbed hold of the bars and yelled, “LET ME OUT OF HERE!”

“What’s all this shouting about?” The jailer wanted to know as he walked slowly up to the door.

“Look!” Lurcio beat his fists against the bars, “You’ve got to let me out of here! Don’t you understand,” he sobbed, “I’m rotting away in this accursed place, rotting away I tell you!”

“But you were only brought in last night,” the jailer pointed out reasonably.

“Can I help it if I go off quickly?” Lurcio asked, “Oh, please,” he begged, “you’ve got to let me go, don’t you understand?”

“Sorry,” the jailer replied sympathetically, “nothing doing.”

“You’ve got to let me go some time,” Lurcio pointed out.

“Use y’mug like everyone else,” the jailer advised.

“Oh, ha-ha! Very amusing!” Lurcio called as the jailer walked off, “You know what you are?” Lurcio asked rhetorically, “A pain in the nick!”

Pushing himself away from the door Lurcio looked heavenwards and appealed directly to the gods.

“Yeah, I know it’s corny,” he admitted, “but could you think of anything better at a time like this?” He sighed, “Oh, dear, well that does it!” Some steely resolve entered his voice, “I’m not staying here, I’m breaking out…” he looked down at himself and scratched his arms, “I am too, it’s this rotten straw they give you.” Looking around the cell, Lurcio searched for some means of escape seeing none he started sobbing in despair. Sitting down slowly on an old stool Lurcio wondered what was to become of him.

0=0=0=0

**The House of Sextus.**

Starring across the breakfast table, Ludricus Hyginus Sextus, watched his wife eat her breakfast as if there was nothing wrong and that all was well with the world.

“Its no good, Ammonia,” Ludricus said eventually, “I can’t do it.”

“Well that’s nothing new,” Ammonia looked up from her morning gossip scroll, she’d been looking for the review of the orgy she’d held earlier in the week.

“I cannot let Lurcio die,” Ludricus explained, “after all he was only trying to help me.”

“You didn’t need any help with Daili,” Ammonia pointed out spitefully. 

“Oh now Ammonia,” Ludricus pleaded, “I thought I’d explained that to you. All we were doing was having a nice chat about my anti vice campaign.”

“From what I hear,” retorted Ammonia, “you did more than ‘chat’!”

“I tell you I went there to denounce, Lecherous,” Ludricus pointed out for about the hundredth time.

“Then why didn’t you take Trix?” Ammonia pointed out, “You should have let her stab him to death and we wouldn’t have all this bother now!”

“But…” Ludricus tried to explain that letting your wife’s gladiatrix stab your political rivals to death wasn’t the way things worked in the new Roman Empire, all that sort of thing went out with the Republic.

“You’re nothing but an old fool, Ludricus Sextus,” sniffed Ammonia as she imagined Lurcio languishing in jail, “I don’t know why I married you.”

0=0=0=0

**The Catacombs.**

Fed up with waiting for someone to go and rescue Lurcio, Scrubba had taken matters into her own hands. Bribing the guards to let her down into the catacombs she drifted from cell to cell looking for her one true love, Lurcio. After looking into the eleventh or twelfth cell, Scrubba was beginning to lose hope, perhaps the Proconsul had already had Lurcio killed. Turning away from yet another cell, Scrubber found herself coming face-to-face with the jailer.

“What are you looking for?” Demanded the jailer sternly of the woman in the travelling cloak.

Scrubber looked up into the jailer’s face and used her most piteous, pleading, I’ll do anything for you, looks on him, it worked; when next he spoke the jailer’s voice was softer and more helpful sounding.

“I mean, erm,” the jailer hesitated almost struck dumb by Scrubba’s beauty, “what can I do for you Miss?”

“I was looking for the prisoner, Lurcio,” Scrubba informed the jailer.

“He’s in the overflow cell,” the jailer informed her, “but, if I let you in to see him,” the jailer smiled knowingly, “what’s in it for me?”

“Whatever you want,” Scrubba told him with a wink.

Moments later the jailer let Scrubba into Lurcio’s cell.

“Scrubba!” Lurcio exclaimed as he saw the girl being ushered into the cell by the jailer.

“Lurcio!” Scrubba cried happy to see that the man she loved was still alive; rushing across the cell to where Lurcio stood she almost slipped on something soft on the floor, looking down she cried out, “EWWW!”

“Yes,” Lurcio walked towards her and took her in his arms, “its best if you look where you put your feet in here. Now,” Lurcio let go of the girl and looked down into her face, “what are you doing here?”

“You didn’t think I’d leave you to die without doing something to help you, did you?” Scrubba pulled Lurcio behind the pillar so they couldn’t be seen from the door.

“Well, it’s a nice thought,” Lurcio thanked the pretty little cook, “but the jailer might come back any moment.”

“Look hurry,” Scrubba started to remove her cloak, “we haven’t got much time, take your clothes off!”

“Certainly not!” Lurcio stepped away from the girl as she started to remove her dress, “I couldn’t do _that_ in here, it’s filthy!”

“No!” Scrubba exclaimed, “Don’t you understand, we’ll change clothes and then you can leave instead of me,” she was half way out of her dress before Lurcio had even made a move to take off his tunic. “I mean they won’t kill me if they find you’ve gone, will they?”

0=0=0=0

Not far away from Lurcio’s cell, Ludricus Sextus walked down the stairs into the dim, dank, fetid air of the catacombs. Hesitating at the foot of the stairs he looked around, with a start his eyes fell on the jailer who had somehow appeared next to him without making a sound.

“What do y’want?” Demanded the jailer belligerently.

“Ah!” Ludricus took a step away from the nasty little man but soon recovered from his shock and drew himself up to his full, self-important, height. “Jailer,” Ludricus forced a smile, “the prisoner Lurcio, I was wondering if you could see you’re way clear to letting him escape?”

“Wot?” Cried the jailer in shock, “You mean betray my sacred trust?”

“Erm,” Ludricus shifted uncomfortably as the jailer’s bad breath washed over him, “yes, I can make it worth your while…” Ludricus produced a heavy purse of coins.

“Do I look like the sort of man who’d take a bribe?” The jailer demanded.

“Well,” Ludricus looked down his Roman nose at the jailer, “to be frank, yes.”

“Quite right,” The jailer reached for the purse as a girlish hand clutching a dagger appeared from behind him. 

The dagger cut easily into the jailer’s throat, blood spurted as the jailer gurgled his surprise at being so easily killed. Falling to the floor the jailer revealed Buffy to Ludricus’ shocked eyes.

“Sorry Dominus,” Buffy apologised as she tried to wipe the blood from her master’s face.

“Why did you do that?” Ludricus wanted to know as he fought off Buffy’s blood stained hands, “He was taking the bribe.”

“It’s what I do,” Buffy looked slightly hurt that her actions hadn’t received the unqualified approval of her master, “anyway this way you get to save the money.”

“Oh yes,” Ludricus looked down at the cute little homicidal maniac in front of him, “I hadn’t thought of that,” he smiled as he took a coin from his purse and slipped it down the front of Buffy’s tunic, “there take that, you’re a good girl, Trix always thinking about your master’s well-being.”

“Thank-you, Dominus,” Buffy giggled at the feel of the cold coin as it slipped between her breasts, “would you like me to…?”

“Not now,” Ludricus turned away from those big hazel eyes before he gave in to her offer, “we better find Lurcio before we’re discovered.”

“Right!” Buffy agreed as she stooped to retrieve the jailer’s keys.

As Buffy bent down, Ludricus noticed she wasn’t wearing anything under her short tunic and started to regret not taking her up on her unspoken invitation. Taking a deep breath he controlled his desires and followed Buffy along the line of cells; they paused to look into each one as they passed. Eventually they came to the overflow cell at the end of the corridor.

“Lurcio must be in here,” Buffy announced as she quickly unlocked the cell.

Bursting in they found Scrubba naked and Lurcio half way out of his tunic.

“My!” Buffy smiled; Scrubba was even more attractive than Buffy’d thought she was and Lurcio had nothing to feel embarrassed about either.

“There’s no time for sex…” Ludricus said but was interrupted by Buffy.

“There’s always time for sex, Dominus,” she corrected her master.

“Not now there isn’t,” Ludricus explained breathlessly, “perhaps when we get home. In the mean time get dressed, its time to get out of here!”

0=0=0=0


	16. Chapter 16

16.

The Temple of Isis, Pompeii.

With a relieved sigh, Dawn sat down on a stone bench in the courtyard of the temple. Smiling her thanks to Cordelia, who hovered protectively over her, Dawn asked if she could be alone for a little while. Reluctantly, Cordelia left her friend and left the temple to rejoin Harmonia and Echo who where waiting outside.

It had been midmorning when Dawn, Cordy and the two dancing girls had left home and headed for the House of Sextus. They’d had every intention of confronting Ludricus Sextus and demanding that he hand Buffy over and into Dawn’s care. Unfortunately they’d never even got past the front door. The door had been opened by a tall, slim slave woman who’d looked down her long elegant nose at Dawn and her retainers. When Dawn had demanded to be let in so she could confront the master of the house, the slave woman had steadfastly denied her entry. Eventually, Dawn had given up and told Cordy to take her to the Temple of Isis.

It had been a long, hot, exhausting walk from Maximus Sextus Square to the Via d’Iside where Isis had her temple. The odd thing was that Dawn didn’t know why she was going there; if she followed any god or goddess she followed Ishtar as Princess Roshan (the previous owner of the body she was wearing) had done before her; Dawn just had a feeling she should be here.

Sitting in the shade under the veranda that surrounded the courtyard, Dawn was just wishing she’d asked Cordy to find her something to drink when a voice called her name.

“Dawn?” Turning her head, Dawn found herself sitting next to a beautiful middle eastern woman, “Hello again,” the woman smiled at Dawn’s confused look, “it is I, Ishtar!”

“Oh, my goddess!” Dawn gasped in surprise.

“The same,” Ishtar smiled broadly flashing supernaturally white teeth.

“What are you…?” Dawn’s voice faded away as the memory of a long forgotten dream came back to her; a dream where the goddess had…

“Yeah,” Ishtar looked slightly embarrassed, “sorry about that, you were supposed to remember the dream…”

“But…” Dawn tried to speak but was silenced by a wave of the goddess’ hand.

“Look,” the goddess sighed, “it doesn’t matter now and anyway I must have made an impression because you’re doing what I told you to.”

“I am?” Dawn found she could speak again.

“Yes,” Ishtar nodded, “I told you to love Cordelia,” the goddess frowned a little, “but not quite in the way you love her now,” the goddess paused as she looked deeply into Dawn’s eyes. “Oh, I see what’s happened, something’s put a compulsion on you.”

“A what?” Dawn placed her hand protectively on her belly.

“Don’t worry,” Ishtar explained, “I can remove it in a trice, goddess, see? I can do stuff like that.”

“But!” Dawn watched as the goddess waved her hand again, “But I love Cordy I don’t want to…”

“It’s alright,” Ishtar reassured her, “I’ve made it so you like both men and women,” a pensive look crossed Ishtar’s face for a moment, “While the fertility part of me doesn’t approve of all this same-sex stuff, the love and sex part of me does and by the way it’s a boy.”

“A boy?” Dawn tried to keep up with Ishtar as she changed subjects without warning.

“The baby,” Ishtar nodded at Dawn’s tummy, “it’ll be a fine strong, healthy boy who’ll grow up to be a good son to you.”

“Oh!” Dawn was a little stunned by all that was happening.

“Anyway,” Ishtar rested her back against the wall behind her, “you and Cordelia seem to be doing very well for yourselves…”

“Except I can’t get to see my sister,” Dawn pouted out.

“Oh don’t worry about that,” Ishtar said lightly, “be at the forum tomorrow at about the fifth hour and you’ll get to see your sister and free her.”

“Free her?” Dawn asked, “How do I…?”

“Remember,” Ishtar waited for the memories to surface in Dawn’s mind, “Your tears will set her free.”

“Yeah,” Dawn pursed her lips, “what about that? How do my tears free my sister?”

“You’ll know when the time comes,” Ishtar replied mysteriously.

“Hey!” Dawn turned on the goddess, “Cut it with the cryptic clues much! This is important, tell be what I have to do!”

“Okay! Okay,” Ishtar sniffed slightly put out by Dawn’s outburst, “No need to get your panties in a bunch…”

“I’m not wearing any,” Dawn informed her with a cold look, “now spill!”

“Look,” Ishtar explained, “as soon as one of your tears touches your sister’s collar the spell on her will be broken and the collar will just fall off; is that plain enough for you?”

“Yeah,” Dawn smiled, now she knew how to free Buffy everything would be fine, “sorry about snapping at you.”

“I’ll let you off seeing how you’re pregnant,” Ishtar appeared to be sulking, people normally didn’t talk to her like that. “But I do demand payment!”

“Okay what do you want,” Dawn sighed, she should have guessed she couldn’t go around telling goddesses what to do.

“Cordelia,” Ishtar said after a short pause.

“What about her,” Dawn replied defensively.

“I want her,” Ishtar’s face became a little hard and she lost some of her beauty, “you will convince her to worship me and she’ll be my acolyte in this world.”

“Hey,” Dawn felt her anger start to rise in her chest, no goddess was going to push her around and threaten her friend, “you leave Cordy alone!”

“Oh don’t worry,” suddenly Ishtar was back to her normal, beautiful, happy self, “being my earthly acolyte is fun, nothing bad will happen to her.”

“You promise?” Dawn asked uncertainly.

“Of course,” Ishtar smiled once more, “trust me, I’m a goddess…”

“Domina?” Echo’s voice sounded like it was coming from miles away.

“W-what?” Looking around, Dawn saw the girl holding out a cup of water to her.

“Coach Cordy thought you might want a drink,” Echo explained as she held the earthenware cup out towards Dawn.

“Oh,” Dawn quickly gathered her wits, the goddess had vanished and Echo was looking at her as if she’d gone insane, Dawn took the offered cup, “thank-you Echo.”

“If you don’t mind be asking, Domina,” Echo looked around the courtyard, there were very few people around at the moment, “but who were you talking to?”

“Oh,” Dawn put down the cup and held out her hand to Echo; she groaned as the dancing girl helped her to her feet, “no one important,” Dawn informed her, “just a goddess.”

0=0=0=0

**The House of Sextus.**

Pressing her back against the front door, Buffy caught her breath after the run back from the proconsul’s palace. Her master Ludricus Sextus lay on the marble floor of the hallway sounding as if he was about to expire right there and then; Lurcio sounded like he was going to follow his master by only a few moments. Scrubba the teenage cook sat with her back resting against the wall trying not to throw up.

After killing the jailer at the proconsul’s catacombs, Buffy and Ludricus had rescued Lurcio. Much to their surprise they’d found Scrubba in the cell with him. The girl claimed that she’d been trying to rescue Lurcio herself. But, as they’d discovered Scrubba dressed only in a surprised look and Lurcio half way out of his tunic, Buffy suspected that her friend had something completely different planed.

After everyone was decently dressed again, Buffy had hurried them all back to the House of Sextus where they now stood gasping out their last breaths. Moments after their arrival, Domina Ammonia burst on the scene at the head of a small army of household slaves. Showing unexpected organisational abilities, she sent Lurcio and Scrubba downstairs to the kitchen where they could be revived. While this was happening several male slaves picked up their master and took him into the atrium. For a moment, Buffy found herself alone in the hall with no one to fuss over her. Feeling a little left out and underappreciated she started to sulk.

“Hello, Trix,” Nausius said slightly breathlessly as he made his way towards her, “are you alright? None of that blood yours I hope.”

“Oh! Dominus! Dominus!” Overjoyed, Buffy rushed into Nausius’ warm embrace, she threw her arms around his neck and hugged him enthusiastically.

“Please Trix!” Nausius gasped as he fought to stop the over sexed slayer from breaking his neck in her excitement.

“Oh! Oh!” Buffy hurriedly let go of Nausius, “I’m sorry Dominus I didn’t mean to…”

“That’s alright,” Nausius massaged the feeling back into his neck, “as long as you’re uninjured, now tell me what happened…”

Before Buffy could begin to explain someone knocked loudly on the door.

“Who’s that?” Nausius asked Buffy nervously as they both looked at the door.

“Maybe it’s the Proconsul’s men,” Buffy replied pulling her dagger from its hiding place and wishing she had her sword with her; again someone knocked on the door, louder this time.

“You better open up and see who it is,” Nausius told her as he retreated across the hall.

“Okay,” Buffy nodded her head before starting to draw the bolts; slowly she opened the door a crack and looked outside.

“Salvete,” said a young teenage boy who was only slightly shorter than Buffy, “you must be the famous Buffitrix.” He announced with a confidence that belied his years, “I am Marius Arsenius, son of Fidelia Arsenius, my mother wishes entry to speak with your mistress.”

“Wow!” Buffy stepped back impressed by the boy’s self-confidence, she opened the door to let the teenager and his mother in.

“Hi B,” Faith swept into the hall and kissed Buffy on the cheek, “how ya doin’?” holding Buffy at arms length she noted the blood spatter on the front of Buffy’s tunic, “Still knocking ‘em cold I see!”

“Y-yes Domina,” Buffy stammered; she was never sure how she should act around Lady Fidelia.

Although Buffy knew that Fidelia (she could never bring herself to call her ‘Faith’ somehow) was from her own time, if not the same reality, she just couldn’t stop herself from treating her like what she appeared to be; a rich, important Roman lady.

“Now where’s that mistress of yours?” Faith asked.

“In the atrium, Domina,” Buffy gestured towards the room in question.

Looking at Buffy, Faith shook her head. The girl seemed to be getting more subservient each time she saw her. It must have something to do with the spell on her slave collar. When she got home she’d send a note to Willow in Rome to see if she’d found some way of getting that damn thing off the poor girl. Sweeping past Buffy, Faith had a feeling that the original reason for coming to see her old friend Ammonia was going to have to take a back seat; something a lot more important appeared to be going on.

0=0=0=0

“Are you bored?” Buffy asked Marius a little later; they were both sitting on a bench in the corner of the atrium while the ‘adults’ discussed the situation with the proconsul’s plot.

“Hmmm,” Marius frowned, “not so much bored,” he admitted, “it’s just that I’ve read about this sort of thing before.”

“You have?” Buffy looked at the young man in surprise.

“Yes my dear, Buffitrix,” he began to explain, “Its an old, old story. I’m surprised that someone like the proconsul hasn’t tried it before.”

“Tried what?” Buffy gave Faith’s son her full attention, “Please explain, no one explains anything to me these days.”

“Ah,” Marius nodded his head, “that’s because they treat you like a slave. However you appear to be an intelligent young woman so…” Marius started to explain. “Throughout history when one man or group of men took the reins of power, there would always be another man or group who thought they should be the ones in power. Perhaps,” Marius sighed, “at some time in the future men will learn to share power for the good of the state or take turns ruling like the Greeks used to.” Again the young man sighed sadly, “But until then there’ll be unscrupulous men, like Lecherous, who’ll do anything, even to the point of destroying what they most crave, to become leader.”

“So,” Buffy nodded her head, Marius had explained everything in such away as even she’d understood and had only zoned out a couple of times. “If I’ve got this right, Proconsul Lecherous intends to have the First Citizen killed and then seize power with the guys whose names were on that list we had.”

To be honest Buffy had lost track of where the list was right at the moment, but she was sure it’d turn up again sometime.

“Correct,” Marius nodded his head, “and it sounds like your master and now my mother have decided to stop the proconsul.”

“Oh that’s easy to do,” Buffy smiled.

“It is?” Marius gave the young woman at his side a long look.

“Yeah,” Buffy nodded her head eagerly, “they just need to let me kill them all, no biggy!”

“Yes,” Marius nodded his head slowly, “that is one way I suppose and it has the benefit of being simple…”

“I can hear a big ‘but’ coming,” Buffy sighed disappointed as the opportunity for mayhem retreated into the background.

“Yes indeed,” Marius sympathised, “I’ve noticed that adults don’t always go for the simplest option.”

“See,” Buffy shook her head in disgust, “I knew there was a big ‘but’ coming. Y’know young dominus they should listen to you and me more.”

“I don’t think…” Marius started to speak but Buffy interrupted him.

“Y’know its going to take them ages to realise what we’ve realised in a few moments,” Buffy explained.

“You are probably right,” Marius agreed.

“So how’d you like to do something else?” Buffy asked.

“Like what?” Marius replied; Buffy sat in silence for a minute while she considered their options.

“I could suck you phallus, if you like,” Buffy suggested brightly, “I’m very good at it and I swallow never spit!”

Looking Buffy straight in the face, Marius was sorely tempted, but then he remembered what his mother had told him about the Buffy Summers that she’d known. He knew then that this wasn’t the real Buffy Summers, the girl offering to perform oral sex on him was a product, at least in part, of the spell that held her in thrall to whoever held the ring. To take advantage of her in this situation would be wrong; also he had his own girl who dealt with all his needs of that nature.

“No thank-you, Trix,” Marius smiled, “I couldn’t impose.”

“Oh! It’s no bother,” Buffy reassured him, “I enjoy it!”

“Marius! Buffy!” Marius’ mother called saving him from having to refuse Buffy’s kind offer again, “Come over here would ya?”

0=0=0=0

“Okay,” Faith paced across the atrium, “its decided, then?”

“I still think it’d be easier just to let me sneak in and kill them all,” Buffy announced.

“No Trix,” Ludricus sighed, they’d been over this half a dozen times already, “that’s the old way of doing things. Back in the days of the republic a career in politics depended more on how good you were with a dagger than any actual political acumen.” He paused as he drank from a goblet of wine, “Now in the new empire we must be more open in our ways. Lecherous and his henchmen must receive a fair trial before they are executed; although if you like I‘ll make sure that you get to be the one to do the executing.”

“Oh thank-you, Dominus!” Buffy squealed happily. 

“Right,” Faith cast Buffy a worried look before continuing, “we make it known that old Ludricus here has something way important to say and anyone who wants to hear it should come to the forum baths just before midday tomorrow.”

“Nausius?”

“Yes mother?” Nausius stepped forward.

“Go tell Lurcio to spread the news around the city,” Ammonia ordered.

“Right away, mother,” Nausius headed towards the kitchen.

“That should draw Lecherous and his men out into the open,” Faith grinned.

“And then what?” Ammonia asked.

“Easy,” Faith smiled wolfishly, “B an’ myself kill them all and arrest Lecherous.”

“Mother!” Marius said warningly.

“What?” Faith turned to see her son standing up and coming towards her.

“No mother you must leave it all to Buffitrix,” Marius informed his parent, “it is too dangerous, I’m speaking now in the interests of my unborn sibling.”

“Hey, but…” Faith tried to say something but was silenced by a look from her son, deep down she knew he was right.

“All the more for me!” Buffy called and settled the argument.

“Okay,” Faith agreed sadly, “B kills them all and Ludricus arrests Lecherous, okay?”

Everyone nodded their heads in agreement.

“Don’t forget,” Ludricus added, “the first Citizen arrives the day after tomorrow so Lecherous must be in custody and his men killed or arrested by tomorrow night.”

“No problemo, Dominus,” Buffy called, “if you can get them to the baths I can deal with them.”

“I’m sure you can, Trix,” Ludricus agreed, “now unless there’s anything else that needs saying?” There was not, “Then I suggest we make our preparations for tomorrow.”

Moments later the meeting broke up and once again Buffy found herself alone. Shrugging her shoulders she headed off to her room. There was work she needed to do, she’d need to sharpen her sword and knife at the very least as she doubted she’d need anything else tomorrow.

0=0=0=0

**Later that night.**

Eager to continue her program of sexual experimentation, Buffy crept along the corridor until she came to Nausius’ room, she knocked quietly on his door; a few moments later the door opened to reveal a sleepy looking Nausius Sextus.

“I’m sorry to disturb you young dominus,” Buffy said quietly, “but I’ve been a naughty slave girl and I need to be punished.”

“Punished?” Nausius frowned, “What could you have done that could make me want to punish you, Trix?”

“Hey!” Buffy cried in exasperation, “Just go with the whole ‘naughty slave girl’ thing, let me in and punish me,” Buffy stared into Nausius’ puzzled eyes, she sighed, “You know,” she explained, “Like, _punish_ me, okay?”

“Oh-oh!” realisation dawned on Nausius, “You want me to beat you as a prelude to coitus?”

“Yeah,” Buffy nodded, “but not too hard, y’know?”

“I think I do,” Nausius whispered, “but I’m afraid I’ve not got a whip or anything.”

“Don’t worry,” Buffy placed her hand in the middle of Nausius’ chest and pushed him back into his room, “I brought my own!”

0=0=0=0


	17. Chapter 17

17.

**The Forum Public Baths, Pompeii.**

Cunningly disguised as a bath house prostitute, Buffy moved cautiously through the swirling clouds of steam. Her skimpy, cotton tunic hugged her damply, accentuating every curve of her body; under her arm she carried her sword wrapped up in a towel. So far she’d seen no sign of Lecherous or any of his supporters and was beginning to think that they weren’t going to show.

“Girl!” A man’s voice came out of the mist.

“What?” Buffy looked around, the steam was really thick in this part of the baths, she could hardly see more than a few feet.

An eddy of cool air caused the steam to swirl and part, revealing a man lying on a towel covered marble table. Holding up a shinny new sestertius he gestured for Buffy to come over. After glancing around and seeing nothing but steam Buffy went over to the man.

“Yes Dominus,” Buffy said politely, “can I help you?”

“Just the usual, girl,” the man sighed as lay back on his towel.

“Well,” Buffy looked around uncertainly; it didn’t look as if anything was going to happen anytime soon; she climbed up onto the table with the man, “just a quickie then!”

0=0=0=0

Outside in the courtyard, Faith sat on a bench under a tree and pretended to watch the young men using the bath’s sporting facilities; next to her sat her son Marius and behind them stood Eos who was acting as Faith’s maid today.

“Marius,” Faith said quietly as she watched half a dozen young men run a foot race, “if it somehow all goes to Hades today, grab Eos and get back home, understand?”

“But mother,” Marius looked at his parent and frowned, “I couldn’t possibly leave you here to face Lecherous’ men by yourself.”

“You’re a good kid,” Faith put her arm around her son’s shoulder and squeezed it affectionately, “but I’ll be fine,” Faith patted the bundle that rested by her side that contained her sword, “venetrix remember?”

“A pregnant venetrix, mother,” Marius pointed out.

“Hey, look,” Faith looked at her boy, “the sword hasn’t been made that can kill me. Now just stop ya mother from worrying and be a good boy and do what ya told.”

“But…!” Marius started to object.

“Marius!” Faith gave her son a hard look; the sort of look Marius had known since he was a very small boy, it said, ‘do as you’re told’.

“Yes mother,” Marius replied defeated.

“Good boy,” Faith gave her son’s hand a squeeze, turning her head slightly at a sound, she saw Ennius walking towards her.

“Domina,” the ex-soldier almost stood to attention in front of his mistress, “all the men are in place, we’re just waiting for Lecherous and his traitors to walk into our trap.”

“Good man,” Faith nodded; the previous afternoon Faith had sent back to her villa outside Pompeii and had her household guards come into the city.

There were now twelve men who owed their allegiance to her family posted around the baths. They were all good loyal men with swords hidden under their cloaks. At a signal from either herself or Ennius they’d move in and take on Lecherous’ men.

“Now, Ennius,” Faith glanced around the courtyard, apart from the young men running around nothing much appeared to be happening, “kiss Eos then get back to ya post and don’t get y’self killed.”

0=0=0=0

“Dominus! Dominus!” Lurcio rushed across the garden to where Ludricus Sextus was strolling in the sun accompanied by his son Nausius. “Thank the gods I’ve found you!”

“Ah! Lurcio!” Ludricus smiled at his slave, “Just the fellow, how does this sound?” Ludricus unrolled the scroll he held in his hand and started to read; “Friends, Romans, Pompeians, lend me your arches!”

“Arches?” Lurcio looked at his master as if he’d finally gone insane.

“Yes,” Ludricus smiled at his own cleverness, “after I’ve denounced Lecherous I’m going to ask the people for their support!”

“Serves me right for asking,” Lurcio told himself, “anyway, Dominus,” Lurcio got on with what he’d really come to say, “Lady Fidelia’s men are all in place and Trix is lurking in the baths somewhere. Once you’re in the baths and the Proconsul makes his move everyone will move in and arrest them.”

“Good, good,” Ludricus nodded absently before turning to look at his son, “come on Nausius, no time to lose!”

“Of course father!” Nausius hurried off after his father while at the same time trying to clip his writing tablet back onto his belt; he’d been making a few notes as he was hoping to make the entire incident the basis for a play.

Watching his two masters disappear towards the baths, Lurcio shook his head in despair, he just knew this was never going to work out as planned, it would all end in tears. Reaching into his tunic he felt the cold, hard, metal of the hilt of the dagger he’d been given for self defence. Pulling the weapon out into the daylight he tested the edge with his thumb.

“Not very sharp,” he muttered to himself, “needs a good grind.”

“Who could!?” Scrubba asked with a hopeful smile on her lips.

“The knife dear!” Lurcio replied wondering how the girl had got into the baths.

“Oh,” with a disappointed sigh Scrubba made her way towards the exit.

“You have to watch every word you say,” Lurcio told the gods as he hid the dagger away and tried to fade into the background.

0=0=0=0

“Is everything ready?” Lecherous asked as Crixus entered the changing room from the antechamber outside.

“Yes your Excellency,” Crixus nodded, “all our men are in place we’re just waiting for that fool, Ludricus to walk into our trap.”

“Excellent,” Lecherous chuckled evilly, “you’re sure the old fool’s here?”

“Yes Excellency,” Crixus fingered the hilt of his sword, eager to get on with the day’s work, “I saw him heading for the senatorial changing rooms myself.”

“Guards?” Lecherous asked.

“None that I saw,” Crixus explained, “just that useless son of his.”

“It couldn’t be better,” Lecherous sneered, “once the old fool is dead, I’ll go to the senate and denounce his foul murder and then no one will suspect that I was behind it.” Looking over his shoulder, Lecherous gestured to the half-man, half-demon that loomed over him from out of the shadows, “Scrophulus?”

“Master?” Replied a deep rumbling voice.

“Stay close to me,” Lecherous ordered.

“Of course, master,” Scrophulus faded back into the shadows.

“Sir! Sir!” One of Crixus’ men, dressed only in a towel and a worried look, hurried in from the steam room.

“What is it!?” Crixus demanded as he half drew his sword.

“Senator Sextus has just entered the steam room with his son,” the man reported.

“You’re sure?” Crixus pulled his sword all the way out of its scabbard.

“Saw them with me own eyes, sir,” the man confirmed.

Crixus nodded to his men signalling them to get ready he then turned to Lecherous seeking the final order to go.

“Go on,” Lecherous smiled, “and tribune…”

“Yes sir?” Crixus paused before diving into the steam with his men.

“I don’t think there’s any need for Nausius Sextus to survive the day,” once again Lecherous chuckled evily.

“Sir!” Crixus turned to Lecherous and saluted, “Ave Caesar!” he cried before leading his men into the mist.

0=0=0=0

Whistling happily to herself, Buffy tossed the coin she’d just earnt up into the air and caught it again before hiding it away inside her tunic. Sensing a disturbance in the steam she became hyper aware of everything around her. Her earlier good mood deserted her as she unwrapped the sword from her towel. A cold breeze had moved swiftly through the steam room indicating that a door had been held open long enough for several people to enter. Her sensitive ears picked up the sound of a multitude of sandals moving stealthily across the marble floor.

“MORE STEAM!” Cried an angry voice from across the room, “I must have more steam!”

Crouching down, sword in hand, Buffy strained her ears trying to hear what was going on around her. The steam got thicker and she could barely see an arm’s length in front of her; she knew something was going on but she’d no idea what and more importantly where.

0=0=0=0

After rushing into the steam room, Tribune Crixus realised that the Proconsul’s cleverly laid plan had one fatal flaw. After coming into the steam room Crixus and his men had no idea where their target was or even if he was still in the room. Standing in the middle of the room surrounded by his men, Crixus tried to penetrate the mist with his eyes. It was no good he could see two paces at best; quickly he tried to think of what his best course of action should be.

“Split up and search,” Crixus ordered, “if you find Sextus shout and keep shouting the rest of us will come to you.”

“Sir!” Chorused his men as they split up and disappeared into the haze.

0=0=0=0

“MORE STEAM!” Cried the voice, “Give me more steam!”

“Just how much steam does that guy want?” Buffy asked herself as the steam got thicker still.

A moment ago Buffy had heard someone conducting a whispered conversation; she’d been able to pick out the words, ‘split up’, ‘search’, and ‘Sextus’. Fairly certain that there were in fact assassins in the steam room and they were after her master, Buffy started to search out Ludricus Sextus himself. It was as she was creeping backwards across the room that she bumped into someone.

“Oh! Sorry Dominus…” turning Buffy found herself facing a man in a brown tunic who clutched a sword in his hand, she screamed at the top of her voice, “ASSASSIN!” 

Lunging forward before the man could fully react, Buffy buried her sword blade in his belly. Groaning he slipped off her blade and fell to the floor, his blood forming a wide puddle around him. At her cry the waterlogged air was split by the screams of young women and the cries of alarm from men.

A fat man in a towel loomed out of the mist and nearly knocked Buffy flying in his haste to escape the steam room. Moving on a few more paces Buffy had to stop to let several semi-naked young women and girls run by as they screamed in fear and panic. Starting to think that shouting ‘assassin’ might not have been her best plan ever, Buffy almost tripped over another man with a sword.

“MORE STEAM!” Cried the voice out of the white swirling mist as Buffy’s sword met that of her assailant.

The blades clanged together as Buffy quickly parried her attacker’s thrust, swinging her sword she sliced open her attacker’s throat. Stepping back from the spray of blood, Buffy peered into the mist, was it her imagination or was the steam beginning to thin out?

“MORE STEAM!” Cried the voice desperately.

“Enough of the ‘more steam’, already!” Buffy called back; yes she’d been right the mist was lifting.

Slowly the scene before her was revealed; there not half a dozen paces away stood Ludricus and Nausius Sextus. Between Buffy and her master stood at least eight men with swords facing in various directions, one of the men she recognised as the Tribune who’d hit her with the whip a few days previously.

“RUN!” Buffy yelled to her master and his son as she moved to attack the assassins.

Moving with deadly grace Buffy danced in amongst Crixus’ men like a one woman slaughtering machine. Blood sprayed across the floor, ceiling and walls, it soaked into her tiny tunic turning it from white to deep red. Limbs span and spiralled through the air as she lopped them off in a blur of metal and movement.

0=0=0=0

Realising that he and his men had no chance against this Minerva in human form, Crixus followed Ludricus and Nausius out into the room containing the cold pool. Stepping through the door, sword in hand he saw Ludricus Sextus making his escape. Just as he was wondering where Nausius had disappeared to, a wood and wax writing tablet hit him over the head from behind. Groaning Crixus fell to his knees, struggling to keep hold of his sword and regain his feet, Crixus screamed in pain as he felt a stylus being plunged repeatedly into his sword arm. Dropping his sword he tried to escape but it was no good he was trapped, looking up in disbelief he saw who his attacker had been.

“S-see,” stammered Nausius Sextus, “the stylus _is_ mightier than the sword!”

0=0=0=0

Hearing a commotion coming from the baths, Faith stood up, taking the bundle containing her sword she threw away the covering material and hefted the familiar weapon in her hand. It felt good to be holding her sword ready to plunge it into the heart of some evil doer. Looking over her shoulder she smiled at her son.

“Grab Eos an’ git!” She ordered.

Conscious of her boy and the Greek girl heading for safety, Faith moved towards where semi-naked men and women where stumbling into the daylight. Aware of her own men moving in, Faith knew that any man she saw wearing clothes who wasn’t one of her guards was an assassin. Catching a flash of grey cloth she saw an armed man trying to escape amidst the panicking bathers. Two of her guards moved in on the man, pulled him from the crowd and killed him on the spot. Smiling, Faith nodded her head in approval, Ennius had trained the men well, they moved quickly, efficiently and with no fuss.

By the time she reached the door, most of the bathers had gone, she only had to step aside for a few of the fattest, slowest bathers now. Long unused slayer senses told her that there was danger ahead, sure enough turning a corner Faith came face to face with Lecherous and the mobile mountain that he called a bodyguard.

“Out of my way, woman!” Lecherous demanded as he moved towards the exit; somehow his carefully laid plan had failed; it was time for him to leave.

“Fuck you, asshole!” Faith replied succinctly.

“Scrophulus,” Lecherous snapped his fingers and pointed at Faith, “kill her!”

The huge man-like creature lumbered forward raising an enormous club in readiness to dash out Faith’s brains onto the polished marble floor. Moving faster than a speeding chariot, Faith closed with the monster. Her sword sang in the air as she cut the creature to bloody ruin. Once again blood painted the walls, floor and ceiling. Strips of skin and flesh hit the walls with wet sounding slaps. After only a few moments the monster groaned and collapsed into a gory, blood-spattered, bleeding and most importantly dead heap on the floor.

“By Jove that was fun!” Faith told herself, hardly even breathing heavily.

Pointing her dripping sword towards Lecherous, she gave him a wide hopeful grin as she saw him go for the dagger hidden under his toga.

“Go on punk,” Faith invited Lecherous to draw his weapon, “make my day!”

Seeing that further resistance would be futile, Lecherous dropped his dagger onto the floor.

“I yield,” he said with infinite weariness. 

Moments later Ennius ran along the corridor behind Faith at the head of several of Faith’s men.

“Domina!” He cried when he saw her blood flecked face and clothes, “Are you alright?”

Two of Faith’s men pushed by her and grabbed Lecherous by the arms, they started to bundle him towards the courtyard.

“Make sure he stays alive,” Faith called after her guards, she turned to look at Ennius, “I’m fine,” she smiled, “never felt better.”

“You worry me Lady,” Ennius sighed, “you’re making my hair fall out.”

“Hey,” Faith grinned as they headed for daylight, “can’t have that, what’d Eos grab hold of if ya got no hair?”

“Promise me Domina that you’ll leave the fighting to me and the men in future,” Ennius pleaded.

“Don’t worry, Ennius,” Faith rested her hand lightly on Ennius’ shoulder, “I don’t think I’ll be fighting again for quite some time.” They stepped out into the sunlight of the courtyard to see it full of men and women standing around wondering what was going on. “Come on, lets see who else we grabbed.”

0=0=0=0

Forming a protective wedge around Dawn; Cordelia, Harmonia and Echo pushed their way through the crowd. The three young women were fit and strong so they soon made a safe path for Dawn who hurried after them as fast as her swollen belly would allow. Taking Ishtar’s advice Dawn and her escort had arrived at the Forum Baths just after the fifth hour. They’d found a near riot going on as they arrived with people muttering about the Proconsul having been killed or arrested.

Eventually Cordelia led them into the garden at the centre of the bath complex, sure enough there was the Proconsul and another man surrounded by armed guards. Dawn’s heart missed a beat as she recognised Faith Lehane standing to one side of the mob, she was covered in blood which a woman was trying to wipe off her. Recognising the woman as the Greek girl who’d given her such a fantastic back rub a few days ago, Dawn relaxed a little. Obviously here Faith was an important woman, her clothes might be blood spattered but they were of good quality; there were also several armed men who seemed to be taking her orders holding the crowd back.

Deciding not to jump to any conclusions, Dawn signalled Cordelia to help her move closer, as she did so she saw several people she recognised; there was Ludricus Sextus surrounded by a gaggle of senators. Glancing to the right slightly she saw a handsome young man writing furiously on a battered writing tablet with a bent stylus; that must be Nausius Sextus, Dawn told herself, but where was Buffy? Just then the crowd parted and Dawn saw the short, blood-splattered figure of her sister standing and smiling uncertainly as people hurried by and ignored her.

“Buffy!?” Dawn half cried, half sobbed as she pushed her way towards her sister.

0=0=0=0

Some things never changed, Buffy told herself, it would always be the same. It didn’t matter how many assassins or monsters you killed you never got the credit. Standing by herself in the middle of the crowd with the blood slowly going sticky on her skin, she looked around. There was her master, Ludricus Sextus standing in the middle of a knot of senator’s accepting their congratulations for thwarting the Proconsul’s dastardly plan. Behind him stood Nausius scribbling away on his writing tablet, he hadn’t even given her a second look since the fight was over.

“Well,” Buffy sighed, “that’s the last time I suck anything of his!”

Even Eos, her dearest friend was fussing around Lady Fidelia, wiping the blood from the older woman’s face and arms.

“What about me?” Buffy mumbled as the words caught in her throat, “Who’s going to wipe the blood off my face?” Sniffing she dashed away a tear with the back of her hand, “If it wasn’t for this freaking collar I’d go and never come back…”

“Buffy!?” Her name came to her over the hubbub of the crowd.

Searching through the press of bodies, Buffy saw the pretty young, pregnant, woman she’d noticed at the games. She was heading towards her through the crowd helped along by Cordelia Chase. Frowning, Buffy watched as the woman got closer, hadn’t Cordelia said her sister was looking for her or something. But, she didn’t have a sister; Willow’s words about alternate realities flooded back into her mind. In the reality she’d known she hadn’t had a sister, but in others, maybe…

“Buffy?” 

The woman was standing right in front of her now.

“Domina?” Buffy replied uncertainly, she glanced at Cordelia hoping for some sort of sign, something to tell her what to do.

“Oh for freaking Hades,” Cordelia stepped between the sisters, “Buffy get with the program, right? This is your sister Dawn, live with it!”

“Buffy,” Dawn looked into her sister’s eyes as her own eyes filled with tears, “I’ve been looking for you, like, forever!”

“But…” Buffy was going to say she didn’t have a sister, but something stopped her; this pretty young (and very pregnant) woman certainly _felt_ like her sister.

“For crying out loud,” Cordy looked heavenwards, “she’s you’re sister, Buffy, no one could be as annoying as she is and not be your sister,” Cordy grinned, “you know what I mean?”

“Dawn?” Buffy stepped a little closer.

“Thank Ishtar I’ve found you,” Dawn threw herself into Buffy’s arms and felt them close around her.

How she’d longed for this day when she’d feel her sister’s strong, protective arms around her once more. As Dawn buried her face in Buffy’s blood splashed hair one of her tears rolled down Buffy’s cheek until it touched the metal of her slave collar. At its first touch the collar came unlocked and fell to the ground un-noticed.

“So,” Buffy broke away from her new found sister for a moment, “I’m the big sister, right?” Dawn nodded her head, “Okay, tell me, how come you’re pregnant?”

0=0=0=0


	18. Chapter 18

18.

**The Proconsul’s Palace, Pompeii.**

“I’m such a slut!” Buffy’s hand trembled as it raised the goblet of wine to her lips, “I had sex for money…repeatedly!”

“Hey, don’t sweat it, kid,” Faith came and sat down on the couch next to Buffy, she put her arm around Buffy’s shoulder, “we’ve all done it at some time.”

“You?” Buffy turned her head to look at Faith, “You had sex for money?”

“Couple of times, yeah,” Faith sipped her own wine, “it’s nothin’ I did like, everyday y’know?” Faith frowned; the sex for cash incident had not been one of her brightest moments. “And I got paid more than a few sestertius for it!”

“Oh my god!” Buffy gasped as she realised the full impact of her actions, she’d had sex for a few coins, pocket money really. “And all the times I sucked…” Buffy couldn’t bring herself to say the words, “…for free!”

“Like I say,” Faith gave the teenager a sympathetic look, the girl was really upset about this and Faith left she needed to say something comforting to make Buffy feel better about herself, “don’t sweat it, Trix it wasn’t ya fault.”

“Not my fault?” Buffy asked hopefully.

“Nah,” Faith shook her head, “it was that spell that Marcus Licinius Crassus…”

“May he rot in Hades,” Buffy added automatically.

“…put on ya and,” Faith gave a deep sigh, “I shoulda never have left ya with Ammonia.” Faith shook her head, “Ammonia’s nice an’ all but she’s from now, she didn’t look out for you the way I would have if I’d seen what was happening.”

Cursing herself for not realising what was happening to Buffy earlier; Faith regretted not keeping a closer check on her. The obedience spell had made Buffy want to obey any order she was given by the holder of the ring. But as time pasted and the spell had taken a firmer grip on Buffy’s mind, it had made her more and more susceptible to suggestion. Eventually she’d have acted like a willing slave whose only object in life was to please her master or mistress. In fact doing what people told her to do had started to become Buffy’s default setting.

“Not your fault,” Buffy put her own arm around Faith’s waist and gave her a gentle squeeze, “you weren’t to know, even Willow never guessed what might happen.”

“Yeah, well,” Faith shook her head again, “I shoulda know better.”

“Don’t beat yourself up,” Buffy rested her head on Faith’s shoulder, “it wasn’t as if I didn’t enjoy doing it and I did get paid.”

“Yeah that reminds me,” Faith let go of Buffy for a moment and became business woman Faith for a moment, “you’re a rich woman Buffitrix Aestatis.”

“I am?” Buffy looked at Faith expectantly, she’d not thought much recently about the money she’d earnt in the arena.

“Not mega rich like me,” Faith pointed out, “but there’s more than enough to set up ya own household and give ya an income if ya careful.” Faith advised, “Ya won’t be able to give up the gladiatrix gig completely.”

“Oh, that’s cool,” Buffy replied, “I don’t mind executing criminals or fighting monsters…”

“Ya what!?” Faith looked at Buffy in shock, the girl must be seriously twisted; when Faith had fought in the arena she’d got out of the gladiatrix business as fast as she could.

“What?” Buffy watched the shocked look on Faith’s face in alarm, “Look, the criminals deserve to die and the monsters, well I’d have killed them anyway, in the arena I get paid for it.”

“Yeah,” Faith agreed, not one-hundred percent convinced, “I suppose ya do.” Deciding to change the subject, Faith asked, “What’s it like to have a sister?”

“Weird,” Buffy sipped her wine again, “like, she feels like my sister y’know, but I also know she’s not.”

“Seems like a nice girl,” Faith shrugged, “and that friend of hers, y’know, whats-her-name…”

“Cordelia?” Buffy nodded her head to herself, “That’s weird too,” Buffy continued, “I knew Cordelia or at least a version of her back home, we weren’t exactly bosom buddies if y’know what I mean?”

“But now?” Faith asked.

“Now…” Buffy hesitated for a moment, “…now I think we could be friends.”

The two women lapsed into silence as they remembered all that had happened to them since they’d arrived in the past.

“So,” Buffy broke the silence, “you got paid for sex, who did you sleep with?”

“Okay,” Faith smiled as she remembered, “first there was Brutus…”

“Brutus?” Buffy asked as she poured them more wine.

“Yeah,” Faith nodded her thanks, “the guy who killed Julius Caesar…”

“No way!” Buffy’s face split into a wide grin, “You slept with ‘et tu Bruti’?”

“Who?” Faith frowned not understanding the reference.

“Never mind,” Buffy laughed, “who else?”

“The man we’re about to go an’ see,” Faith examined her finger nails in a display of nonchalance.

“You screwed the First Citizen!?” Buffy gasped impressed, “When? Tell me more!”

“Oh it was years ago,” Faith explained, “about when I was your age I’ll tell you all about it later, but…”

“But?” Buffy asked quietly.

“Thing is,” Faith brought her head down next to Buffy’s so they could talk without fear of being over heard, “the First Citizen an’ me we’re sorta buds, okay? An' he owes me one…well maybe two, if ya see what I mean.”

“No,” Buffy replied in a whisper.

“Look,” Faith sat up again, “this trial thing we’re goin’ to, we and especially you, should come outta it smelling of roses!”

“We should?” Buffy hadn’t actually considered that she might have done something wrong, but if she had it’d be good to have the judge on her side.

“Yeah,” Faith put down her goblet and stood up, “time we were going.”

“Is it?” Buffy took one more mouthful of wine, just to give her courage; she stood next to Faith and asked, “What should I call this First Citizen guy?”

“Caesar, should be fine,” Faith led the way towards the door her silk dress swishing as she walked, “come on.”

0=0=0=0

After Faith’s men had captured Lecherous and all the bodies and blood had been cleaned up, the Pompeian senate had held an inquiry into Ludricus Sextus’ claims of a plot against the First Citizen. Citizens were questioned, slaves were tortured and the scroll with the list of co-conspirators turned up again like a bad dupondius. This sealed Lecherous’ and Crixus’ guilt and they were brought before the First Citizen once he’d arrived the next day. On the day after that there was a short trial, as Lecherous had admitted his guilt and implicated Crixus there really wasn’t much left to say. Octavian Caesar considered the two plotters punishment, he even asked advice of the Pompeian senate as to what would be the most fitting death for the two plotters.

Very quickly it had been decided that as Lecherous had admitted his guilt and Tribune Crixus had at one time been a brave soldier of Rome; the two men where to be condemned to the arena where they could at least die with a little honour. Everyone said how merciful the First Citizen had been, Buffy was just glad she’d not had to give evidence. As she’d been a slave when all this had happened there was some question whether she could give evidence as a freedwoman or a slave. If she had to give evidence as a slave she could only do it under torture. No way was she going to let that happen and she really didn’t want to get blood on the pretty dress Faith had lent her.

After the two condemned men were led away to await their fate in the arena, the First Citizen’s advisor and scribe asked if there was anymore business. There followed a short pause, but just as everyone was about to leave the audience chamber a short, rotund man with a beard and dressed in an expensive toga stepped forward.

“Just and mighty Caesar!” Called the man, “I crave justice!”

“And you are?” Caesar leaned forward in his chair and speared the man with a hard look.”

“Lentulus Batiatus,” the man replied, “one time owner of the Batiatus Gladiatorial School near Rome, perhaps you’ve heard of it?”

Looking slightly puzzled, Caesar turned to Posca his chief advisor, the man whispered in the First Citizen’s ear for a moment or two before Caesar nodded his head.

“I remember you, Lentulus Batiatus,” Caesar admitted, “what do you want?”

Taking a deep breath Lentulus explained; some months previously he’d been forced to sell a very expensive gladiatrix to Marcus Licinius Crassus (may he rot in Hades). Lentulus went on to explain that a contract entered into under duress (that is, being threatened by an entire century of Roman soldiers) was no contract at all. As Marcus Licinius Crassus (may he rot in Hades) was now dead, killed by persons unknown in Rome, the ownership of the slave in question should revert to him.

“And the name of this slave?” Caesar asked impatiently.

“Buffitrix, your Honour,” Lentulus announced, “sometimes known as ‘The Barbarian Queen’.”

Frowning Caesar turned to his advisor again, it seemed to him that he knew the name from somewhere. Luckily his aide, Posca, had an almost perfect memory for names; quickly he explained how Caesar had seen the girl fight in the Arena Maximus in Rome.

“Yes, I remember now,” Caesar admitted, “a pretty blonde haired girl, exceptional fighter.”

Octavian Caesar didn’t like the games so only turned up when he absolutely couldn’t get out of it. Now his mind had been jogged he remembered the girl quite clearly, she’d impressed him as an unusual distraction from the general tedium of the games.

In the crowd Buffy shifted uncomfortably as her past came back to haunt her. Lentulus had been her first owner, it was he who’d had her trained as a gladiatrix. While he wasn’t such a bad master as masters went she had no wish to be owned again now she was free. Turning to Faith she looked for support.

“Don’t worry kid,” Faith whispered, “I’ll deal with this.”

“So, Lentulus Batiatus,” Caesar asked wearily, “what do you want me to do?”

“Simply to return my property to me,” Lentulus explained, “if your honour wishes I can show him proof of purchase.”

“And,” Caesar gave Lentulus one of his most frosty smiles, “how am I supposed to do that?”

“Simple,” Lentulus gestured to the crowd, “the slave in question is standing over there.”

“Where?” Caesar looked into the crowd of senator’s wives and other women, “Which one is Buffitrix?”

“That one,” Lentulus pointed, the First Citizen still couldn’t see who he meant.

“Who’s Buffitrix?” Caesar demanded.

“I’m Buffitrix!” Buffy stepped from the crowd.

In the silence that followed Octavian Caesar studied the girl for a moment; today she was clothed in an expensive dress, but he remembered her covered in blood shaking her bared breasts at the mob as she celebrated her victory in her latest fight. There was no mistaking it, this was Buffitrix. However before he could speak something unusual happened, a brown haired pregnant woman stepped out of the crowd and went to stand next to the gladiatrix.

“No, I’m totally Buffitrix!” Dawn called.

“What the Hades,” Cordelia stepped out of the crowd to join Dawn and announced, “Hey look, I’m sooo Buffitrix!”

Before anyone had a chance to say anything a whole bevy of dancing girls stepped forward and claimed, “We’re Buffitrix!” 

“I’m Buffitrix as well!” Eos pushed herself out of the crowd and came to stand before the First Citizen.

Several other women, including Ammonia Sextus stepped forward one after another all claiming to be Buffitrix.

Caesar placed his hand in front of his mouth to hide his smile as yet another woman stepped out of the crowd.

“I’m Buffitrix,” Faith announced with just a hint of menace as she glanced at Lentulus.

“No!” Caesar cried as he looked down at this latest claimant to the Buffitrix name, “I happen to know, Fidelia Arsenius that you are not Buffitrix and it’s no good claiming you are!” Turning to Lentulus, Caesar couldn’t help but smile, “My dear Lentulus Batiatus there appears to be some confusion as to who exactly this Buffitrix girl is,” he nodded towards Faith, “I suggest you go with the Lady Fidelia and come to some sort of agreement with her as she seems to be an interested party.”

Getting to his feet, Caesar looked out over the crowd of Buffitrixes; “This court is adjourned.”

0=0=0=0

**A small antechamber in the Proconsuls Palace.**

“Okay fat boy,” Faith grabbed hold of Lentulus by the throat and pushed him up against the wall, “I’m willing to make you a one time deal, accept it an’ I won’t open ya belly here an’ now.”

A knife magically appeared in Faith’s free hand, she waved it in front of Lentulus’ eyes, he gulped and tried to speak but no words came.

“I’ll give you fifty-thousand sestertius if you renounce all claims to ownership of Buffitrix,” Faith released the pressure on Lentulus’ throat, “you hand over all documents with her name on and you get to walk out of here richer and alive, what d’ya say?”

“I must say,” Lentulus licked his lips nervously, “Lady Fidelia that you are a most astute business woman…of course I accept, do I have any real alternative?”

“No,” Faith smiled as she released her hold on Lentulus, a thought came to her, “hey, d’ya want a job?”

“What?” Lentulus was obviously shocked by the offer, a moment ago this harridan was trying to kill him and now she was offering him a job.

“Hey,” Faith shrugged, “it took balls to stand up in front of the First Citizen like that.” Faith’s knife vanished as quickly as it had appeared, “An’ Trix told me a little about ya, she said you weren’t too bad a boss, so,” Faith smiled, “what d’ya say?”

0=0=0=0

**The Amphitheatre, Pompeii about a week later.**

“Ya don’t have to do this, Trix,” Faith said as she sat with Buffy in the waiting area behind the Gate of Life, “You’re a proper freedwoman now, you can pick an’ choose who ya kill.”

“It’s something I need to do, Fidelia,” Buffy still couldn’t bring herself to call Faith by her up time name; it didn’t seem right to her, she’d never know her in the future and could only imagine her as ‘Fidelia’. “and,” Buffy grinned, “I’m getting a good purse for this and the chance to perform in front of the first citizen…what girl could resist!?”

“Ha!” Faith laughed, “Ya know when I knew you up time I thought you were a real, tight, ass bitch,” she informed the gladiatrix, “I think I like this version way more,” Faith stood up, “Luck, Trix.”

“Thanks,” Buffy stood up and gave her friend a hug.

“You slay ‘em, kid,” Faith passed Buffy her helmet after she’d slipped her arm through the straps of her shield.

“Hey,” Buffy grinned, “I’m Buffitrix, I kill them all!”

0=0=0=0

Walking down the short passageway to the vestibule behind the Gate of Life, Buffy prepared herself for going out to fight again. Calming the butterflies in her tummy she controlled her stage fright. It didn’t seem to matter how often she fought, the butterflies were always there. Standing between the golden rods of sunlight that pierced the dusty air like lances, Buffy checked her gear one last time. Sword, knife, shield, arm guard, grieves, nipples; she smiled at the sight of her pinkie-red nipples standing proud from her breasts, she’d need to ask Eos for more of the paste soon.

Placing her eye to a knot hole in the gate she watched as the arena slaves dragged away the bodies of the common criminals killed during the interval between the more important bouts. The crowd murmured like some sleeping beast waiting for the next entertainment to begin. Knowing it was nearly time; Buffy placed her helmet firmly on her head, hefted her sword in her hand and shifted the weight of her shield on her arm. Any moment now she’d be going on to meet her public just like she had dozens of times before. With a rumbling, scraping sound the Gate of Life was pulled up, squinting a little as the bright sunlight hit her eyes, Buffy waited a moment before starting her walk to the centre of the arena.

Stepping into view of the crowd Buffy was greeted by a great cheer as nearly twenty-thousand throats called to her. Lifting her sword and shield above her head she acknowledged the adulation of the crowd. Slowly the chant began, starting somewhere in the summa cavea it slowly spread throughout the amphitheatre lead by the cheerleaders who danced and capered opposite the VIP box as they spelt out her name.

“Buffitrix! BUFFITRIX! **BUFFITRIX!** ”

After pausing to acknowledge the cheers of the mob once more, Buffy walked on to the centre of the arena where she halted and turned to face the First Citizen. Slowly the crowd settled down and became quiet, Buffy lifted her sword in salute.

“Ave Caesar!” she called her voice echoing around the arena, “Morituri te salutamus!”

As the crowd roared its approval, Buffy felt no need to add anything to make her feel better about fighting for the entertainment of others, today she’d become a true Roman.

Turning to face the Gate of Death, Buffy waited for her opponents to appear, behind her the cheerleaders chanted, ‘Go! Buffitrix go!’ over and over; slowly the mob joined in with the chant. With a squeal of protesting wood and metal the Gate of Death opened to reveal two naked men, they were pushed into the arena by the arena slaves where another slave threw two swords at their feet. Lecherous and Crixus shielded their eyes from the sun as they bent to pick up their weapons. They both knew there was no escape, yes there was a _very_ slim chance that they might kill their executioner, but it would only give them a short reprieve. Other gladiators would be sent to finish them off, their crime had been against Caesar himself and there would be no escape. Swords in hand, Lecherous and Crixus walked slowly towards where Buffy stood. They ignored the boos and jeers of the crowd, they stopped half a dozen paces short of where Buffitrix stood.

“So they sent you to kill us,” Crixus called bitterly, his right arm was still useless where Buffy had crushed it in the forum.

“Looks like,” Buffy shrugged before adding, “Look, if you fight bravely and give the crowd a show I’ll try and kill you quick, I won’t cut you up first, okay?”

“Do your worst, whore!” Raising his sword in his left hand Crixus rushed at Buffy.

His first few blows were heavy and forced even Buffy to retreat a couple of steps, but a week or more spent in the city prison had robbed him of his strength and he soon tired. Stepping forward, Buffy parried his last weak blows with her shield before plunging her sword into his body. True to her word she stabbed him up under his ribs aiming for his heart, he died quickly and with the minimum of pain. Pulling her sword from Crixus’ body she turned to face Lecherous.

“What about you?” Buffy asked readying her sword and shield.

“I’m no swordsman,” Lecherous admitted.

“You’ve got to try,” Buffy explained.

“One thing before I die,” Lecherous pleaded, “my wife…”

“I’ll make sure she’s alright,” Buffy reassured him, “now fight!”

Moving forward, Buffy allowed Lecherous to attack her, she actually made it look as if he was a better fighter than he actually was. However, after a few moments she knew it was time to finish it and slit his throat with a blindingly fast cut of her sword. Wide eyed and with his hands clutching at his throat, Lecherous fell to the ground and bled out onto the sand. After checking that both of her victims were dead she walked back to the centre of the arena and saluted the First Citizen again. Letting the cheers of the mob wash over her, Buffy acknowledged their approval, saluted the cheerleaders (which had become her custom) and walked slowly from the arena. Her work was done for now; she was Buffitrix and she’d killed them all.

0=0=0=0

**The Epilogue.**

**The House of Buffitrix Aestatis, several years later.**

Sitting in the shade of her garden, Buffitrix thanked the Lady Fortuna for all her good fortune over the previous few years. Her eyes drifted over to where Laetitia played with her doll and a slight frown came to Trix’s face; the little girl had been an accident. The one time she’s forgotten to put on the contraceptive bracelet during her days (and nights) of sexual experimentation with Nausius Sextus, she’d fallen pregnant. At the time Trix had been just a little annoyed with herself and with life in general, now she couldn’t imagine life without her little girl.

Living in her own house with Eos and her husband Ennius plus all their kids, Trix was quite happy to let things go on as they were. At night she hunted, often with the help of the Peculiaris Extraordinarii which not only made her life easier it also made it so much safer. About once a month she’d make an appearance at the Amphitheatre to kill off some monster and maybe chop up a few criminals, although she didn’t kill convicts these days as much as she had in the past. The mob still loved her and the money she got from her appearances helped out with the household finances. Yes, Trix sighed contentedly, life was pretty good.

About seven weeks after Trix had killed Lecherous and Crixus in the Amphitheatre, her sister Aurora had given birth to a healthy baby boy whom she named Varro Postumus Aestatis in memory of his father. About a year after the birth of her son she married Nausius Prodigus Sextus, the famous poet and playwright (and Trix’s sometime lover). Trix had long suspected that her old master’s recent successes were mainly due to Aurora’s influence. The previous week Trix had gone to see Nausius’ latest play, it reminded her very much of the film ‘The Magnificent Seven’ that she’d seen on television long, long ago.

Six months after Aurora had made Trix an Auntie, Lady Fidelia gave birth to a boy that she and her husband Marius called Augustus; he was to be her last child. Marius the Younger went off to Military School and was now serving as a Tribune out east somewhere. 

Ammonia Sextus still acted as Trix’s ‘Watcher’, but Trix believed this was mainly to give her something to do now her husband Ludricus Hyginus Sextus was Proconsul. Things in the Sextus household hadn’t changed that much, true Erotica had been married off to one of Ludricus’ political rivals; Scrubba still carried a lamp for Lurcio while he at least pretended to ignore her advances.

True to her word, Trix had checked that Daili, the widow of Lecherous Maximus, was well cared for. Trix found that Lady Daili had opened what was to become one of the most successful brothels and casinos in Pompeii.

The cheerleaders were still popular at the games and at private parties, Cordelia was still in charge and now that Aurora was a married woman, Cordy shared her bed with Harmonia her lead dancer. All the girls in the troupe were free now but they’d stayed together and had no plans to break up the team.

0=0=0=0

Some times when she was sitting by the fire at night with her daughter asleep in her lap, Trix wondered what her life would have been like had she never come to this world of the past. Would she be rich and famous? Would she have a daughter and any lover she wanted? Would all her friends and family be as happy as her friends and family here? She suspected the answer to all these questions would be ‘no’.

At times like this the only thing she missed about the future was her mom. The thought that her mother believed she was dead broke her heart at times, she wished she knew if her mother was alright all alone in the future. Perhaps, Trix smiled slowly, perhaps Giles and her mom had got together. Maybe her death in the future had forced the two adults in her life to form a bond; Trix hoped and prayed that her mom and Giles were as happy there as she was here.

“Oh well,” Trix sighed as she stood up, “the die has been cast and we can’t change the result.”

Picking up her daughter; Buffitrix Aestatis, who had once been called Buffy Summers, walked slowly back to her house, she was content.

0=0=0=0

Acta est fabula, plaudite!-The play is over, applaud!

THE END.

**Author’s Note.**  
This is the last _planned_ story in the ‘Back in the SPQR’ series. There’s lots of ‘Rome’ based films and TV out there to supply xover material, but I’ve no plans on using any of it for the foreseeable future. 


End file.
